Install

Imagine this scene.

Client: I want to build a house – How Much?

Contractor: What would you like to build? How many bedrooms? Any particular style?

Client: Don’t bother me with details. Just tell me the budget?

Contractor: You decide boss!

Client: Ok Done. Rs. 2 Crores. Start tom. What time will your bricks come?

Contractor: But Sir ….. Please give me some idea on what to build?

Client: Arre – You are the Contractor – you should know what to build. And listen – I don’t want to see any cement bags on site. If you want to use – then use, but cover with cloth at all times – my wife does not like to see a mess. Clear.

Now imagine what the building will look like. Any chance the client or contractor will ever end this happily? Lots of money and time will be spent while the client pictures his dream house and the contractor stands around wondering where to begin, just happy he has some work.

This in a nutshell seems to be the basis of every install project I been asked to look into.

Except in my case the entire building is built. A few token light points have been installed in a few rooms. Nobody remembers the capacity of any cabling. Nobody has ever laid any control cables.

And I am told – Now light it!

Apart from a very very few projects, why is lighting (and I suspect sound and video) always an afterthought. Even in hotel ballrooms and Theater spaces, the space provided for technical areas is (usually) woefully inadequate.

Why are Technical Facilities always an Afterthought?

We enter a vicious cycle. Because of all the compromises we need to make – the project is usually never properly realized. And I sincerely hope that exhibitions like PALM attract builders and owners so that they can see some of the equipment that can enhance their projects and facilities. Hopefully a technical consultant can be hired at the initial stages to insist on the design to include all the cabling, install positions (with load factors calculated) and sufficient place to install a control system. A system designed by geniuses to be managed by simple people. Then the revolution can begin.

Waiting for the enlightened owner managers of these facilities that embrace technology – are a huge bag of goodies. I have not seen the heart of these systems – But I am sure we have all noticed how technology helps our new airports and the newer transport systems run. We don’t see the cables, as they been planned for. Well disguised in the brackets and positions around these massive spaces. I am sure there is an intricate system of cables and switchers that are running below the marble floors to ensure we know where to unload cars, check in and find the closest gates. Without being obvious our passage through these buildings has become so easy.

Likewise so many of our newer multiplexes, install and disguise their technology to enhance the movie experience.

I hope we can educate our potential clients that this technology can be easily installed into most facilities for a vey nominal cost. Systems that can enhance every user’s convenience, safety and security. Our public buildings are becoming larger and used in multiple ways. Why can’t airport passenger systems be adapted into hospitals, courts, office buildings where it can be used to direct people to the right rooms within the building?

Once there, technology can be used to ensure information is shared with clear voice and sufficient visuals to make our experience both comfortable and quick.

It is now understood that malls have grown from simple retail into social meeting points and the entire experience is converted to an entertainment opportunity.

Perhaps you may have seen the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai lit with the Indian Flag last independence day. Was that entertainment, experience, social, political? Perhaps it was some combination of all these. Does ‘Edutainment’ convey the idea. New words and concepts will need to be coined.

That’s it for traditional spaces. Technology today can define entirely new experiences. Virtual walk through, 3D modeling and video graphics can create a whole new world of experience and entertainment. We are beginning to see this within museums. It’s only a matter of time before the entertainment opportunity can be commercially implemented. Like all disruptive technologies – these will be slow to implement. Then accelerate at a massive speed. We have seen the velocity of this embrace is usually massive. Video games took a decade to become mainstream. Then in a few short years the industry overtook Hollywood in worldwide takings. That generation of gamers is still young. But in time they will control spends. They will not know entertainment as we know it. They will demand the video game experience in every building they will use for work and play.

What we see as entertainment today, may become basic. Interaction will be key.

The big difference between movies and gaming is that the gamer can customize its surroundings. He can choose who wins. Will the hero get the girl? And when he gets her will he kiss her or steal her car?

We can choose to live in our own worlds. Philosophically that will raise a thousand issues. Social media and social commentators will go crazy defining the NEW World.

If you in the technology world that made it all happen, you can look at all that chatter on one screen while the opposite corner of the screen shows your mounting bank balance.