Parlamentarium

Bringing European policies to life

Client

European Parliament

Year

2009-2011 / 2013-2018

Location

Brussels

In 2009, Markenfilm SPACE took on a transformative project for the European Parliament: the design and development of the multimedia installations and exhibits for the Parlamentarium in Brussels. On 5.400 m2 on three exhibition levels with two 360° cinemas, more than 100 videos and 300 interactive multimedia installations, visitors can explore the world of the parliament and interactively understand its background of political acting.

Interactive installations for the Parlamentarium

As media production partner, we produced all interactive media stations, including a large number of touch screen software, apps for mobile trolleys, video playback for 3D voxel installations, and a special web-based multimedia CMS. We also developed and programmed a file management software to support our internal media management, which enabled us to automatically handle all 120,000 work files.

360-Degree Panoramic Cinema

The exhibition features two 360° cinemas. In one, visitors sit in replica plenary hall chairs and experience the world of parliamentarians through panoramic footage captured by a specially developed camera from Markenfilm. 14 HD projectors create a seamless 150-square-meter projection, with audio that adjusts to the viewer’s position. Camera movements enhance the feeling of space moving. The second cinema offers a more relaxed atmosphere with large-scale footage of cities and landmarks, providing an emotional journey through Europe.

Interactive Floor Map of Europe

This massive digital map invites visitors to explore key locations and historical moments in EU member states with mobile trolleys, illustrating the EUs initiatives across Europe. With 90 RFID hotspots and „Ground-of-Story“ scanners, visitors can interact with the map to reveal dynamic content on integrated touchscreens. As visitors move the scanners over the map, the system displays relevant films and information. A stunning 3D LED installation above the map further enhances the experience, creating a captivating, immersive visual representation of Europe.

Historical Timeline Display

A digital, interactive timeline showcasing pivotal events in European integration, allowing visitors to zoom in on events, treaties, and agreements that have shaped the EU.

Personal Multimedia Guides

Over 700 Personal Media Guides (PMGs) lead visitors through the exhibition. We designed an interactive touchscreen device that seamlessly combines audio, text, images, and video to enhance the visitor experience. Equipped with RFID technology, it automatically detects visitors‘ locations, delivers language-customized content, activates media installations, and guides them through the exhibition. Featuring over 400 videos, 300 multimedia features, and 700 multilingual audio pieces, the PMG offers a tailored and immersive visitor experience.

The challenge: everything in 24 languages

Providing access to the exhibition in all 24 official EU languages challenged us in many ways, be it design, content, or software. Text lengths differ extremely and screen designs and film lengths have to take this into account. Our editorial team of writers, journalists, and historians developed all media content shown in the exhibition. In order to manage the huge amount of text including later updates – the „Treaty Table“ texts alone contain up to 40,000 words per language – we developed a special CMS that provides a smart overview of all media content.