Changing the way we imagine static space, the EBC Wall is a revolutionary interactive display in Microsoft’s Executive Briefing Center. The EBC building hosts important customer and partner executives, providing them vital insight into Microsoft’s company roadmap. To greet these visitors, the EBC Wall offers a 60-foot by 20-foot dynamic lobby display that reflects the internal advances at Microsoft in one fun and engaging learning experience. Combining generative animations and design with interactive statistics, the EBC Wall is a stimulating and fitting introduction to Microsoft’s heart of collaboration and innovation.
When designing and developing within an architectural landscape, there’s always special considerations. When that landscape is a massive, interactive LED display over a wood veneer in Microsoft’s flagship lobby, there’s even more to think about. We enjoyed the challenge of working on a large scale to create a unique and impact-driven project. Utilizing a series of Kinect motion sensors and code driven animations, we integrated select Microsoft statistics to create a living, breathing, and customizable display that mirrors the advances happening within the company.
To create a truly interactive wall experience, we designed and coded animations to perform across a chain of three Kinect sensors. This allows visuals to track an individual or group as they walk across the lobby. For instance, our “Welcome” theme collects Seattle weather data, and customizes the user experience based off that information. On a rainy day, an umbrella follows guests across the lobby. On the off chance of Seattle sun, a kite flies just overhead.
Additionally, we adapted our graphics to meet the building’s physical demands, designing each visual around the gaps in the wall’s grid paneling, and hand selecting color palettes that integrated well through its wood veneer.
In all, we created 12 custom themes, building a customizable template that allows designated administrators the power to change, update, or remove statistics within a pre-designed animation theme to keep the installment dynamic for years to come. In addition, we worked within Microsoft’s management software, Four Winds Interactive, to provide a scheduling feature assuring that displays, such as a customized group welcome or an important statistic, appear at the opportune moment.
We joined the EBC Wall project with the goal of creating a lobby ambience unlike anything else in the world, using our visual and development expertise to take this project from ideation to finished product. Given a broad problem, we worked within a creative framework to deliver a focused and innovative solution, bringing an otherwise static background to life along some of Microsoft’s most visible real estate.