Neumann&Müller GmbH & Co. KG

The "International Festival of Brand Experience" (BrandEx) is a new and exciting format that premiered in Dortmund in January 2019. The idea of the festival is to provide a platform for regular, comprehensive and inspiring reflection and debate to ensure that the live marketing sector continues to grow and develop. The result is an event that brings together different formats under one roof and provides exclusive discussion and performance forums for interdisciplinary exchanges of ideas between all involved in the sector – from old hands through to motivated newcomers.

Since the new format was launched, we have been involved on the creative side of things together with dozens of insiders from various subsectors of our industry, who collaborate on concepts within project groups. The resulting marketing festival communicates know-how, gives attendees the opportunity to forge new contacts and networks, and is crowned by an award ceremony.

The sophisticated festival program was dubbed "01: The encounter" and consisted of 100 presentations on 15 stages including two "Keynote Lounges" and six "Themed Areas" – and all of that in four different languages. Our "Remote Simultaneous Interpreting" (RSI) system was deployed at the festival and was also the subject of a detailed workshop presentation. "Interpreting 4.0" represents a giant leap forward for congresses and conferences such as the BrandEx Festival, whereby interpreters are not bound to the actual venue itself. Their connection to the "spoken word" is the data line between their workplace, the venue and the speaker's microphone, which runs via N&M's interpreter hub. RSI helps event organisers to increase their flexibility as well as the scalability of their service regardless of the language or of the location, duration or size of the event.

Besides providing the technical services for simultaneous interpreting in four languages, we also ensured "silent sound" for the entire event area. We integrated 700 receivers into the network to enable attendees to follow their individually selected programme item on their headsets in the language of their choice. Our camera equipment supplied the accompanying images to the monitors for the both attendees and interpreters from the video control room set up entirely by N&M. We realised "ultra low latency" video streaming via 256-bit-encoded "point-to-point" connections.

Before the "Best of Events" fair opened its doors at Dortmund's Westfalenhallen the next day, the best projects in the sector received BrandEx awards – the worthy successors of the long-running FAMAB awards – and a good time was had by all at the subsequent after-show party.

Photos: Ronny Barthel for BrandEx-Festival

A small building for great art: the "Zimmertheater" in Tübingen emerged from the "Freie Theatergruppe Thespiskarren" in1958. It has two rooms that can accommodate 120 people – the "Zimmer am Neckar" with a capacity of 50 and the "Gewölbe" for an audience of 70 – and it generates an intense theatre atmosphere on each of its two stages. The venue's history contributes to its extraordinary charm: the laboratories of the Trapp’sche Apotheke pharmacy were once located on this site in the Bursagasse in the centre of the historical old city. Located directly on the picturesque banks of the Neckar river, below the St. George’s Collegiate Church and in the immediate vicinity of the Alte Burse, the Hölderlin Tower and the Neckar Island, the theatre continues its progressive mission with a permanent ensemble and contemporary orientation.

The theatre management engaged us to plan the replacement of all the technical equipment, which we did within the framework of "care4equipment" – our service package especially designed for permanent locations and (theatre) venues. Besides identifying outdated systems and technical equipment in need of renewal, our inspection also revealed that the electrical installations did not meet the applicable standards and regulations. However, the tight schedule remained unchanged: the entire project, from planning to completion, had to be ready for its premiere in just eight weeks, and so we set about the detailed installation planning with subsequent implementation of the various systems in the two auditoria. First, we installed a completely new electrical system, followed by audio, lighting and video equipment. Today the stages feature a 5.1 sound system and are lit by environmentally-friendly LED technology. The new video system enables 3D hologram projections and mapping with up to six projectors. We designed bespoke load-bearing systems for the curtains and lights for both stages in the historical building.

Our "care4equipment" services were deployed at the “Zimmertheater”, and we demonstrated that implementation from a single source has distinct benefits in terms of both budget and schedule while also being of major significance when it comes to preserving the fabric of the building.

Dieter and Peer Ripberger, who manage the "Zimmertheater", were full of praise for the way the project was executed:

"The N&M team, led by Andreas Kammerer, turned the Tübingen “Zimmertheater” inside out: in the middle of the summer break, with an extremely short planning period and a crazy timeline. Following the complete overhaul of the electrical installations and event technology for our two stages – one of them in a historical arched cellar from the 16th century – our theatre now has two auditoria fitted with safe, modern equipment. We can now realise contemporary aesthetics that correspond to the state of the art – while saving a lot of energy thanks to the complete changeover to LED. We received – and still receive – the best possible support at all times. Thank you very much to the entire team!"

The Mobile World Congress is Deutsche Telekom's most important international platform for demonstrating its technological leadership. At the end of February 2017, over 2,200 companies met in Barcelona for the sector's annual gathering of network operators, smartphone producers and tablet manufacturers. The heading for the sector's leading international exhibition was "Mobile – The next element". Deutsche Telekom's exhibition stand featured new products relating to "5G", the communication standard being promoted as the technical basis for the "Internet of Things". We were in sole charge of the audio, lighting and video systems and were also responsible for the rigging on the exhibition stand, as we have been since 2014.

Attendees were able to position physical objects and integrate them into the interactive application on an 65’’ PAN-NET touch table featuring 4K resolution and Tangible Object Recognition (TOR). These markers symbolised Telekom tariffs, data contingents, additional options, etc. By turning and combining these markers in different ways, visitors to the exhibition were able to put together individual product packages.

The "Smart City Guide" programmed by our studio in Dresden provided an interactive overview of the exhibition stand, which included all of the exhibits and stations. The "Security Net" app was the interactive simulation of a hacker attack, which we showed on an OLED display, for example. A further app presented the interactive simulation of "Seamless Connectivity", which enables smartphones to maintain a reliable connection to the internet.

In his capacity as leading programmer, Robert Schöne developed a content management system that allowed central control of all the exhibits on the entire Telekom stand. This CMS enabled a "content deep dive" to be performed on each exhibit, thus permitting live access to documents with variable contents, such as PDFs or PowerPoints. We realised this programming with VVVV, Watchout, C# and XML.

The ESL Championship is the elite class of eSport in Germany and is held at alternating venues three times a year. Spring 2019 saw the country's top gamers compete in three disciplines: "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" and "League of Legends". The winners were crowned national champions.

The semi-finals and the final of the Spring Championship were held at the "Castello" in Düsseldorf over two days in April. The four best teams in each discipline competed in front of over 25,000 online spectators a day for the title, the trophy and the lion's share of the overall prize money of 67,000 €.

We helped to prepare the perfect setting for the public event by providing the audio, lighting, video and rigging as well designing the stage. In order to create the right gaming atmosphere among the audience, the lighting and video were controlled automatically from within the game: for example, red lights flashed in the auditorium as soon as a bomb exploded, or a skull symbolised that a player had been eliminated.

Incidentally, we also support e-sports as a sustaining member of the eSport-Bund Deutschland, which was founded in 2017, because when professional sport meets entertainment, the event technology needs to be just as professional. And that is discipline in which we are truly outstanding.

Photos: Stephanie Lieske