Production ideas

April 16, 2015

Samsung made a splash with a booth that gizmodo.com called the best of C.E.S. It felt "like you were in a Disney Tomorrowland funhouse stuffed with the toys of the future that you can play with today," wrote editor Roberto Baldwin.

Photo: Jacob Kepler for BizBash

Intel's 12,000-square-foot booth included an enormous, front-facing LED screen and about 30 plasmas, all topped by a waved ceiling that changed colors to the pulsating beat of the exhibit's music.

Photo: Jacob Kepler for BizBash

Art Institute of Chicago Gala

On March 14, the Art Institute of Chicago hosted a gala to celebrate the opening of its new exhibition: "Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design 1690-1840." For the dinner portion, Bon Appetit Catering served a menu of Irish-inspired fare including rosemary-dusted lamb chops and Irish Cream cheesecake. To immerse guests in a thematic setting, Frost cast floor-to-ceiling projections of the Long Room in the Old Library at Trinity College Dublin on the walls of the museum. HMR Designs handled decor.

Photo: Jeff Ellis

New Media Party

The New Media Party in Washington, returning for its second year, featured several inventive uses of technology at events. Produced by Event Farm, the party incorporated sponsors such as Vntana, which created holograms of guests that were then projected onto the walls of venue Carnegie Library. Other sponsors included Lyft, Microsoft, AOL, and Yelp, which created a listing for the event and allowed guests to post reviews and photos.

Photo: Kristen Finn

This year's awards saw the introduction of video mapping, a projection-centric component used to introduce each of the category nominees and confirmed award recipients.

Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Hennessy Black's digital bonfire used digital mapping technology to recreate a live bonfire. It included four panels with a 3D video fire, as well as crackling sounds and incense to provide the aroma of a campfire.

Photo: Manny Hernandez / Courtesy Hennessy Black

On the show floor of the Magic expo, two blank mannequins were mapped with 3-D projections of items from Lil Wayne's Trukfit clothing line.

Photo: Al Powers/Powers Imagery

6. Interactive Projections Mapped in Real Time

Projection mapping—also known as 3-D mapping—has become a wildly popular tool for event marketers, and a Microsoft Research project extends the use of that technology even further. Designed as a form of immersive entertainment, a prototype dubbed IllumiRoom captures the forms and layout of a room via a Kinect for Windows camera and, with a projector, expands the visuals beyond the screen in real time. The system can even make it look like a room is moving.

Photo: Courtesy of Microsoft Research

Bravo's speech-bubble-shaped logo was also found in the 3-D backdrop for the presentation. Three-dimensional projection mapping technology cast moving graphics and videos onto this structure.

Photo: BizBash