Interactive Showroom for Value Chain Management

An increasingly popular way for companies to present their portfolio to potential clients is the showroom. They offer the possibility to communicate the brand, display products and provide visitors with detailed insight in a controlled environment. Easily said, but not quite as easily done for GS1, a company that is specialized in highly complex processes around value chain management. Thanks to the power and flexibility of Ventuz, creative studio VS Factory found intriguing and playful ways to visualize the services of GS1 in their new showroom in Paris.

The showroom, which opened in late 2017, features eight different multimedia installations that cover the different universes GS1 operates in. All installations are based on a variety of interaction models and value inputs provided by the Ventuz software suite and are closely connected to actual use cases, bringing to light the many ways in which value chain management can help companies control and protect their workflows.

The main installation is a touch table which demonstrates the tracking of a product’s ingredients. VS Factory had 14 objects manufactured, which represent different food products. When placing an object on the table, an integrated RFID chip triggers the according presentation in Ventuz. RFID recognition is natively implemented in Ventuz and is used especially on exhibition floors, where all visitor badges are equipped with RFID chips. The technology allows the easy transfer of relevant information into the Ventuz system from the RFID server, and also provides failsafe workflows for triggering animations when the carrier enters a certain proximity.

In addition to RFID recognition, the table installation also provides interactive navigation by touch. Here visitors can select components and ingredients of each product and get information about the origin and production chain. By combining different interaction input methods, interfaces can stay slick and streamlined, even when a lot of content needs to be incorporated. Ventuz supports a multitude of interaction technologies natively, but also provides easy ways to script APIs for technologies that are too new to have found their way into the Ventuz world.

Another use case in the GS1 showroom includes a scanning device. By scanning a wine bottle, users can view the products entire life span and check whether it is a forgery. Other installations show the tracking of patients across a hospital or the origin of ingredients of a meal in a restaurant.

Even though all installations are just demos, they could easily be translated into live environments. The open input-output-nature of Ventuz offers seamless workflows to combine input technologies with data backends of any kind, from databases to web inputs and beyond, which allow companies to transform their data into visually appealing and highly usable presentation content.

In fact, they are already connected to a live data management system, which is hosted by VS Factory for maintenance purposes. The workflow is as follows: In addition to the eight Ventuz servers – one per installation – the agency has implemented a data server. Whenever GS1 requires updates or needs changes in the content, VS Factory accesses a custom-made web interface which is connected to the data server. By adding or changing information in the web interface, the Ventuz installations automatically update their content. Here, the real-time nature of Ventuz as well as the extensive possibilities for live data input provide an efficient workflow for VS Factory maintain the setup remotely.

With the help of the Ventuz software suite and its powerful real-time motion graphics workflows, VS Factory has been able to create well-designed and highly reliable installations that allow GS1 to bring their complex services into an easily understandable and entertaining form. The interactive showroom has been running smoothly for over a year and has become an essential tool for GS1 to interact with existing clients as well as prospects.