PAUL FRENCH & PARTNERS

-MILLIKEN CARPETS

ET Studios is equally adept at working both with product end-users or production and design intermediaries.

Coordinating with a nationally recognized production firm, ET Studios developed a maintenance-free, 12 video kiosk set for use in an industrial setting. The obstacles of a factory environment may have "floored" other firms but ET saw this as a unique opportunity to provide a multi-language audiovisual program which would deliver relevant information about the carpet-making process for the Milliken Carpets Georgia plant. The challenge lied in compensating for the dust and noise inherent to the factory.

ET Studios researched the physical plant to determine optimum positioning for each video kiosk and the requisite electronic hardware. After evaluating audio needs throughout the tour area, ET determined that battery-operated infrared headsets provided the best external noise reduction capability. Further, each tour guide's microphone was set to a specific frequency to avoid any crossover during multiple tours.

ET Studio engineers configured the hardware to have an automatic power control that would extend the life of the equipment. A radio scanner was set to the microphone frequency and as a tour guide came in the range of the kiosk, the scanner instantly sent a message to the controller which automatically turned on the kiosk and played the video. As the tour guide left the area, the scanner signaled the controller for automatic shutdown.

Given the international diversity of groups who would participate in the planned tours, ET Studios designed a multi-language button box, featuring a 1600 button controller. Tour guides could then easily and quickly choose any of eight languages via lit, arcade-style buttons.

The success of this type of project depended on both a comprehensive assessment of the factory environment and clear delineation of the equipment appropriate to compensate for both the physical and logistical obstacles in the factory. As an example of ET Studios' detailed approach to ensuring a project's effectiveness, the Miliken Carpet factory tour has continually operated with only minor modifications for more than five years.

- ET-Studios.com