BrightSign Powers Stunning Displays at the 2013 Zurich Film Festival

Each Fall, the film industry descends on Zurich, Switzerland for the Zurich Film Festival, an annual gathering that brings together film luminaries from across the globe. Now in its ninth year, the 2013 festival delivered an impressive line-up of events, award ceremonies and receptions to honor the achievements of directors, producers, actors and others within the film industry. Harrison Ford accepted a lifetime achievement award, while Hugh Jackman received the festival’s Golden Icon Award.

“An integral part of the event, our digital signage installations are unique in that they have the ability to both inform as well as entertain. For the second year, we turned to Imaculix to help harness these functions to the best of their ability, and we were very impressed with the result,” said Karl Spörri, artistic director of the Zurich Film Festival.

Much of the festival’s activities were projected on the ‘Silver Screen,’ a massive, centrally located screen that served as a focal point for attendees. Most notably, the screen featured a live feed from the festival’s ‘Green Carpet,’ chronicling the arrival of celebrities, dignitaries and other honored guests. In addition, the screen showed featured films and displayed important news and updates about the festival’s many daily activities.

While Zurich’s Bellevue hosted much of the festival’s activities, film screenings took place at several cinemas located throughout the city. In addition, receptions and other festival activities took place at nightlife venues within Zurich’s city limits. The entire schedule of events was promoted on digital signage throughout the city and via an extensive public transportation infrastructure.

Digital signage conceived by Imaculix and powered by BrightSign was utilized extensively across this expansive network of event venues and transportation depots. More than ever before, innovative digital signage installations were used to direct festival attendees to their destinations, inform them about upcoming festival activities and simply entertain them with a dazzling array of eye-catching displays.

“Each year we are challenged by the festival’s organizers to integrate digital signage in new ways – finding innovative methods to entertain and inform the attendees,” said Andy W. Bohli, CEO of Imaculix. “BrightSign’s players are always up to the task, delivering unmatched reliability and flexibility. No matter what we dream up, BrightSign gives us the ability to execute with flawless results.”

The Zurich Film Festival began on September 26th and concluded on the 6th of October.

Key Facts

Industry: International film festival

Location: Zurich, Switzerland

Integrator: Imaculix GmbH

Project: Zurich Film Festival

Installation

• More than 70 screens powered by BrightSign digital signage media players utilized at four key areas within the festival grounds:
  • Public Transportation: BrightSign’s XD230 players fed screens located in transportation terminals and airports, as well as on busses, trams and ferries. Screens featured Full HD film previews, animated video, RSS feeds for live news, festival information and transportation schedules.
  • Green Carpet: BrightSign’s XD1230 players fed live video content to a massive cloth screen that faced the primary venue location.
  • Silver Screen: BrightSign’s XD1230 players delivered a live feed of Green Carpet activities, as well as sponsor messages and other custom content, all with immersive 5.1 audio playback for a crisp, clear listening experience.
  • Riverside Location: BrightSign’s XD1030 players fed eight screens at this impressive outdoor venue that hosted 10 events each day of the festival. These screens were enabled with button board interactivity, a robust sound system, WiFi connectivity and USB triggers that made it easy to toggle between schedules, events, films and other festival content.

Challenges

• Technical challenges in previous years prevented festival organizers from displaying live feeds on festival screens
• Over a period of nearly two weeks, each screen displayed more than 500 hours of dynamic video from multiple sources
• Multiple screens within each event venue had to be capable of displaying unique content
• Geographically dispersed festival venues required a scalable, flexible deployment capable of managing content feeds with ease

The Solution

• BrightSign’s XD digital signage players made it possible to send live content in real time
• Players fed background clips that corresponded to each actor as they arrived on-stage to accept their awards
• BrightSign’s players were seated on WiFi networks with integrated button boards for easy, quick control of content feeds
• Also powered by BrightSign, the festival’s “Silver Screen” was the festival’s central screen that displayed welcome messages, movie trailers, sponsor messages, a live Green Carpet feed and screenings of the festival’s four featured films
• The main stage was flanked with foil-treated windows with rear-projection content fed by BrightSign’s XD players
• Button board controllers were attached to the players in the Riverside Location, enabling festival attendees to control what content was displayed

Benefits

• The ability to send content in real time enabled festival organizers to showcase Green Carpet activities on the Silver Screen
• BrightSign’s players allowed organizers to send unique video feeds to specific screens, making it possible to cue content on the fly to suit the particular situation
• The flawless reliability of BrightSign’s players enabled festival organizers to feed content 24/7 without the inconvenience of any downtime
• Interactive capabilities at select festival locations let festival attendees view specific trailers of interest and retrieve important event information