Empire State Building: Entrance & Grand Lobby

Reimagining the Guest Experience with Seamless Technology Integration

The Empire State Building (ESB) recently set out to fully reimagine its observatory and subsequent guest experience. Since the iconic building first opened its doors in 1931, it has been visited by hundreds of millions from across the globe including some of the most prestigious world leaders as well as Hollywood celebrities. Today, more than 4 million visit every year—a crowd that could no longer be denied an enhanced and more memorable experience.

Diversified was engaged early on by Skanska, a general contractor the company has worked alongside for many other high-profile projects such as the United Nations and MetLife Stadium. Having been involved with the ESB team for more than a year, Diversified was determined to provide the most seamless technology integration with advanced audio-visual technology to help them reach their goals. This process included setting up a live demo lab with displays that covered multiple LED pitches, large format LCDs and projectors for projection mapping and blending. Diversified even came up with an innovative use of 3D printing to prototype a ticket scanner at each turnstile. Everything seen in the new exhibits was mocked up and tested in the demo lab before fabrication to ensure seamless integration and the best guest experience possible.

Through the design, install and seamless technology integration of best-in-class equipment for the new interactive exhibits, the Diversified team built in resiliency and redundancy for the entire critical path of the video system. If for any reason a device in the signal path were to fail, the system will automatically switch to a backup and continue to play-out content with no interruption to the experience of exhibit viewers. Furthermore, all units are designed with serviceability in mind to minimize downtime including cameras monitoring every exhibit 24/7.

This phase, which covers the new entrance at 20 West 34th Street and grand lobby, is the first of four to come. The Diversified team is already working diligently on seamless technology integration for the second phase, which will include highly advanced technology sure to wow the next generation of ESB guests.

Continue the journey with Phase Two: ESB Second Floor Exhibits >