Professional Lighting & Production - Summer 2017 | Page 30

Dubai
City Walk
An immersive retail experience for one
of the world’s most opulent cities
By Michael Raine
There are a few cities that stand
out in everyone’s minds for their
opulence and general over-the-top
nature. Las Vegas is certainly one,
Tokyo another, but Dubai may be
at the top of the list. Extravagance
defines the city, which rests on the
Persian Gulf coast in the United Arab
Emirates and acts as the economic
centre of the Middle East.
Things are just bigger in Dubai.
It has the world biggest mall and the
world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
So obviously, if you’re hoping to make
a statement in Dubai, you need to
push the limits. The Dubai City Walk
certainly does that, thanks in large part
to a pair of Montreal-based companies.
With the ambition of creating an im-
mersive retail experience that would ri-
val the famous Dubai Mall, the world’s
largest shopping centre, Dubai-based
retail developer Meraas conceived
and built the City Walk project. It’s
meant to be a destination location,
something that will attract residents
and tourists alike, with a village-like
complex that incorporates shopping,
dining, and entertainment. But unlike
outlet malls in North America that use
the village-style concept, the Dubai
City Walk complex is much more than
a square of box stores with some trees
and patios interspersed. The City Walk
is an immersive, multimedia environ-
ment that stimulates all the senses
through its lavish use of video, lighting,
projection, sound, and architecture.
Combined with its sheer scale – 34
five- and six-story pavilions that span
85,700 sq. m. with enough video and
projection surfaces to cover 12 football
30 • PROFESSIONAL LIGHTING & PRODUCTION
fields – the Dubai City Walk is an awe-in-
spiring experience.
With the original intention of a
single focal point with a video feature,
Meraas turned to Float4, with offices
in Montreal and New York, to handle
all content creation, program strategy,
and technological infrastructure design.
That initial vision, however, expanded
exponentially. The project grew to
include water screens, 30 LED displays
in 21 formats, and 34 hi-res projectors
in addition to a complement of lighting
fixtures and audio.
In all, the installation ended up
utilizing 32 video servers that send 100
million pixels of digital content, as well
as 23,000 ft. of fibre optics and over
108,000 ft. of video cable. Recognizing
that integrating this massive AV system
into an already-built complex would
require a company with a wealth of
experience in large-scale projects in in-
ternational markets, the team at Float4
turned to their fellow Montrealers at
XYZ Cultural Technology, an AV design,
sales, and integration firm.
“Alex [Simionescu, Float4 co-found-
er and creative director,] is a friend of
mine from a long time ago and each
time we were meeting each other or
just at informal events, I’d say, ‘Hey, how
are you? Still working on your interac-
tive project?’” recalls Dildel Lavoie, an as-
sociate and director of business devel-
opment at XYZ, as well as the account
director on the City Walk project. “For
Float4, it was a first experience in that
kind of a huge infrastructure project
and every time we were crossing paths,
[I was] always explaining where XYZ
was because we have evolved as Float4
evolved. At some point, we were kind
PHOTOS COURTESY OF
FLOAT4 & XYZ CULTURAL TECHNOLOGY