An Extraordinary Digiphysical Showroom

IP Only knows that the future is digital. But who will take responsibility for ensuring that the digital aspect has somewhere to exist and reach? Actually, they will. As a builder of our era’s most important infrastructure—fibre networks—they make sure that all of today’s digital services are able to reach everything and everyone that wants them. Even those who live far away.

With fibre, IP Only makes a smarter future possible for everyone who wants to be part of it. And not just for individuals, but for local communities, county councils and entire countries, too.

This is naturally something they want to showcase. With so many possibilities, a screen can start feeling confined. They settled on a whole room instead. Where the digital possibilities could be woven into every detail, piece of furniture and surface. “What about the windows?” we asked. “The job is yours,” said IP Only.

From the sixth-floor room, the staff enjoy a panoramic view of Uppsala. What can we do about this, we wondered. And a layer of solar film, a pane of smart glass and four monster projectors later, we were done. And a bit of coding magic of course. At the touch of a button, we were then able to transform the window glass into a dimmed, projectable surface for the projectors to play on.

This way we were able to help IP Only visualise the smart city that their fibre network opened up to. The view gave way to a 3D sketch of what the same city might look like.

Turn off the windows before you leave

And then? The view comes back just as quickly as it disappeared. Another click and it’s back to business as usual.

A large part of the assignment was to convey the vision without losing sight of the product – the fibre network. That’s why the room was designed to shed as much light on the product itself as on the opportunities it affords.

We let the technology portray the possibilities by projecting the vision of the future onto the windows. We also produced three animated films for the 9 m² video wall. As the windows showed what fibre can do for Uppsala, we let the films explain what it can do for the world.

We also left our comfort zone and showcased the product in a highly analogue manner. Using fibre-optic cables, we created a pattern along one of the room’s short walls before running them down into the floor. And the floor was in turn filled with LED coils that link every part of the room and interact with the content shown on the screens.

Yes. We took care of the design, concept and production of all the content. For all the furniture and physical items, we teamed up with Expohouse. And with Mobile Interaction, who magically rigged together the control unit for the entire room (that’s right, the whole room is controlled from a single tablet). These were two extremely valuable partnerships that let us take the project from pitch to launch in less than two months.

We wanted to show fibre’s capabilities and the importance of having the right IT infrastructure in an exciting, informative and attractive way. Our showroom is better than we ever could have expected, and really bowls over visitors to our office!

– Linus Axelsson, Marketing Manager IP-Only

Thinking in physical and digital design terms at the same time added a new dimension to the design work. We didn’t want to step on any IT architects’ or interior decorators’ toes.

That’s why we had both the moving content and seating purpose-built by carpenters. We made sure the room could be a place for customer events, but also a place for staff to hang out and charge their batteries.

1. Smart glass

And the geniuses that got it to communicate with the projectors with the least possible latency. Ping* Mobile Interaction.

2. Interactive LED in the floor 

The LED is connected to the video wall and interacts with the content shown on the screens. For a better holistic experience, as they say.

3. Digital content

We created animated presentations and films for the screens to highlight the various applications and opportunities that fibre networks afford.

4. Custom turned furniture

We designed the furniture and fixtures, Expohouse delivered at 1000 mbit/s. Ok, wrong unit maybe, but everything happened extremely fast.