News

Scala digital signage makes beautiful music in Netherlands concert hall

April 11, 2012

Scala today announced the completion of a new visual communication installation at the Frits Philips Music Building in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The install combines an intuitive wayfinding system with a high-tech and ambiance setting entertainment system. The project was led by Scala partner Troades and was executed by Scala and AV-company Mansveld.

"Working together in a multidisciplinary team, including creative people, has again been a very rewarding experience," Troades Managing Director Luc Heijnen said in the announcement. "Being the catalyst both from a human and technology point of view created another great innovative visitor experience."

Regarded as one of Europe's top 10 concert halls, according to the announcement, Frits Phillips Music Building in Eindhoven needed to ensure that its new wayfinding and information system would measure up with both the visual and technical standard found already in its acoustically optimal concert halls. Concert hall administrators wanted to add value to their costumers experience by managing the atmosphere in the building to enhance the type of music played, and furthermore they wanted to give visitors easy access to information and entertainment other than the concerts, empowering the visitors to fully enjoy their musical experience.

Frits Phillips appointed Hypsos, a global design and fabrication company, to initiate this process and together they decided to redesign and rebuild all visitor areas. Scala was consulted at an early point to make sure an optimal digital signage solution would be installed in collaboration with Troades, a project management provider for innovative and high-tech digital signage installs.

"When visiting a music theatre, 'experiencing' the performance in each cell of your body is key. All aspects of the performance — audio, vision, setting, surroundings and building — should be in sync with each other, and all of these aspects should reflect the ambiance of the performance that you attend," said Ton van Hout, strategic account manager, Benelux, at Scala. "Exactly that is what was created in the Frits Philips Music Building, and Scala is proud of the fact that our software plays an important part in this innovative theater concept."

The results are produced through a network that is managed by the operational team via a touch panel, and the digital signage network is managed by a Medialon system which controls all AV hardware and lightning.

Greeted by an impressive, 13-meter-wide and 3.5-meter-high multimedia wall in the foyer, visitors are accompanied by digital help throughout the venue. Twenty-five Scala players are used for wayfinding purposes on various walls inside the building via projectors. These inform visitors about the program in the concert halls, the starting times of performances, the route toward a particular show/hall, and they indicate the upcoming or present shows at the entrance of the halls.

The logo of the Frits Philips Music Building was also updated and now resembles a graphically redesigned form of the character "M." Five very large LED versions of the logo are placed at the outside fascia of the venue. One Scala player powers these logos that continuously change color to attract the eyes of people passing by.

Read more about wayfinding digital signage.