Tech Hub Injects Light Emission Fun in Paris

	Light Emissions LED video display system helps provide some interactive fun and excitement at the Silicon Sentier in Paris.

In the Bohemian Marais District, in the center of bustling Paris, a new tech hub opened in the final months of 2013. The Silicon Sentier aims to provide a digital ecosystem to help aid and accelerate tech innovation in small and upcoming companies.

Media and tech designers Blow Factory offered the Sentier the idea of providing some interactive fun and excitement, using Light Emissions creative LED video display system. Blow Factory owner Paula Guastella had worked with Light Emissions previously in London, and knew that the Art system could provide the brightness and pure video speed needed.

Blow Factory's Guastella explains: "We wanted to surprise people entering the lobby. As they walk past this large glass wall with colorful moving images, they spot their own 'body shadow' shown on the screen. They stop, turn around, and wave and have a little dance!"

A standard Kinect optical sensor is used with a mini-Mac providing the video input to Light Emissions Brain video input module. This then simply connected to 7x7 ArtBoard Display boards with 37mm pixel resolution. An 8mm thick frosted glass diffuser was placed in front of the display boards to provide a smooth visual image.

Key to any permanent installation, especially behind a glass wall, is the highest reliability possible. The company says the Light Emissions unique system design, separating the display LEDs from the local processing and power management, ensures that the need to remove the glass panels is all but eliminated.

Carl Fairbrother, Light Emissions installation manager, also emphasised the use of the ArtFrame mounting system. "Fitting such a flexible video display system into architectural areas must be thought out carefully. The ArtFrame is a great way to simplify and speed up installations whether for a small system like this or for much larger and more difficult installations."

Guastella noted that the Art systems DVI input made the interface to the mini-Mac very simple, "it was just a question of connecting the min-Mac to the Brain, and that was it!" The 100% "pure" video of the Art system also ensured that the interactive media was rendered blisteringly fast -- this is important when even a slight delay would just irritate.