Exhibition / Environmental project

Broadband World Forum 2018 Stand

Details

Client Name: NetComm Wireless

Work

  • Project Planning
  • UX / UI
  • 3D Visualisation
  • Design & Art Direction

The Challenge

Broadband World Forum is the largest show for NetComm in terms of financial investment and as such it’s important to get the biggest bang for every buck. The 2018 show was of added importance as it was showcasing a world first Multi-port Distribution Point Unit (DPU) which would be the focus of the stand and its promotion.

The Solution

Before working on a design I needed to get feedback from those who had attended the previous years show to see what had worked and what hadn’t, a few prerequisites came out of this including the need for a hanging sign so the location could be seen from all areas of the show floor and having meeting rooms on the stand so staff didn’t have to travel far. The space had been booked in advance and was a 6 x 9m island so I allocated two 3 x 3m meeting rooms leaving a 6 x 6m space for the exhibition side.

 

I iterated a number of concepts before settling on a central column which would house the main showcase device and 4 podiums coming off this which would house 4 live demonstrations of the device. To properly illustrate this concept to stakeholders within NetComm I taught myself how to use Blender and created a 3D model of the stand to show the basic layout from multiple angles.

With the basic design approved we worked on the central column and the podiums. The middle column went through a number of versions including one that was a water filled tank to show the device working underwater before setting on an acrylic case, unfortunately the prototype device wouldn’t be waterproof by the show, so we had to go without water in the tank. At this point it was also decided that only two of the podiums would be for the showcase demos and the other two would be used for other verticals (Fixed Wireless and Wireless M2M). I decided to use actual devices on both of these stands to show they were proven technologies, in use by Tier 1 telcos and kept the graphics to a minimum so the devices could do the talking.

The remaining two podiums were to be dedicated to the DPU with one featuring a large portrait screen showing live diagnostic data from the device in the central column and the other showing the full product SKU that would be available. I created the UI for the screen to mimic the central device with 4 live received below the TV which could be interacted with and real-time changes would occur on the screen.

 

As well as creating the design for the physical layout I also created the wiring diagrams for the stand builders as I would not be onsite for the build (as the event was in Berlin). The wiring went smoothly although there was an unfortunate error made by the stand builders who built the 4 podiums wider than they were originally intended, creating a problem with the exterior artwork which no longer went edge to edge, to compensate for this we hastily created frames which worked in the circumstances.

The Outcome

This was the most successful show NetComm had to date and the most well received stand from both staff and attendee feedback. The meeting room / demo combo worked well for the sales teams as they were able to either step into a room to talk to a lead in private or break out of a meeting to do show and tell.

 

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