Entertainment on demand system:
design for a pervasive entertainment system

In 2004 we were asked to design the packaging for a new domestic pervasive entertainment system. Centred on a hidden terrabyte capacity hard drive storage unit the system presents to the user as an injestion or one time input device and a network of small satelite control units in each room alrg with wall mounted video monitors and speaker arrays. The nature of the lifestyle of the users was critical in formulating a design response. As a centrepiece in the user's daily entertainment rituals and activities these devices must sit comfortably as a part of that scenario.

In designing this product we are really designing the space around it, the event space. The ingestion device is a tool for making and framing events. It's a kind of magic carpet to transport you via the content you are playing, to other worlds that you can then share with others.

Our response is the Entertainment Engine. The Entertainment engine is an informal and friendly object. It is a fusion of bioluminescent deep-sea marine life and the portable record players people used to take on picnics and to parties in the 1960s. It is a pale translucent light cube, packed with an array of coloured lights that respond to the content ingested or being played and the presence of users. It can be deployed in a vertical format also. In its horizontal format it is inviting like a table and the LCD display screen flips up when the unit is in use. In the vertical format the LCD screen slides up automatically when you wish to use the unit and it retracts back within the unit when it is not inuse. When not in use the unit is a strange and mysterious object mounted on the wall or projecting from the wall that lights up when you approach near it. This design flows from a scenario of informal living. It is more like a fireplace or the centre of a family get-together, setting the scene for comfortable gatherings. With its array of lights this machine can be considered an entertainment and ambience engine, a more subtle offspring of the discotheque. The design can be wall mounted or mounted on a single stalk to become almost a piece of furniture. This unit invites interaction and attention.

The functions of the Light Array

The light array performs 3 functions: an animation device to suggest both extent and character of the processing power of the unit, an interactive mirror that responds to the presence of users to a programmable extent, engaging and provoking users or at least acknowledging their presence. Finally the light array functions as a wraparound interface, able to output information on the progress and status of the required tasks.

The desire behind this idea is to splice the notion of the computer as a highly reactive, sensitive and complex device onto the existing model of high-end entertainment equipment. The inspiration is the exotic domain of the parallel processing supercomputers. The expression is very simple. The general box form is simple. The key advance is to integrate light arrays into the envelope to create active packaging. This creates a new typology of package: the dynamic responsive package. It also combines graphic design with industrial design and programming to create a new syntheses. The translucent entertainment engine borrows part of its approachable aesthetic from the highly successful Apple IPod and IMac products. This translucency is reflected in an emerging array of high-end architectural and household items. The translucency playfully reveals some of its contents, a sign of how sure it is of its internal structure and ability to deliver and be reliable. The responsive lighting array is embedded in this skin again creating an entirely new hybrid package. This assemblage is designed to exploit the newest materials available to create seductive and complex surface, a melding of technology and a more natural aesthetic.

The combination of translucency and light arrays creates a simulacrum of electroluminescence or its biological equivalent, bioluminescence, which has not yet been widely employed as a design motif. It is an appealing if strange combination of elements in nature that I believe has great potential in emerging design.

Credits

Design: Michael Trudgeon
Visualisation: Glynis Teo