bauma 2019

This leading international trade fair for construction machinery takes place every three years and is a show of superlatives: 3,700 exhibitors and more than 600,000 trade visitors come together at the world’s largest exhibition centre in Munich.

Superlative interactive bauma trade fair stand

The largest and most important of these exhibitors is Liebherr, with 14,000 square metres of open-air exhibition space. The construction machinery manufacturer presented itself under the motto ‘Together. Now & Tomorrow’. Among the more than 100 exhibits were innovations and product developments in tower cranes, mobile and crawler cranes, mining and earthmoving equipment, materials handling, civil engineering and concrete technology. The largest machines of the entire bauma exhibition were on display in this area. It took almost a year to set up the stand, which consisted of several buildings.

On behalf of Ars Electronica, Garamantis had the opportunity to contribute to several interactive exhibits in a “Future Pavilion” located in the Liebherr Service Centre: for example, the multi-touch software, the control system and the CMS integration all came from Berlin.

Interactive showcases for presentation at bauma

Liebherr’s comprehensive refurbishment programme was presented in an interactive showcase equipped with a touch panel and electrically switchable film. Each step of the process – from removing the old component to installing the new one – was clearly explained on the screen, while the relevant structural elements were either visualised or hidden behind the electrical foil.

A second of Garamantis’ interactive showcases presented seven construction machines on a turntable. Visitors could, for example, select an excavator by swiping across the glass surface of the showcase, whereupon two monitors displayed information on its range of applications, performance characteristics and equipment options. As with all the terminals, it was possible to switch between English and German at any time.

Multitouch exhibition walls work with projections and screens

A large interactive monitor wall with recessed multi-touch screens gave visitors an idea of the breadth of the manufacturer’s worldwide sales network and range of services. They could playfully explore a high-resolution 3D globe with their hands, or the globe could play pre-recorded stories. A second multi-touch screen was mounted behind a round and a rectangular cut-out in the wall, giving it a particularly striking appearance (round monitor). Here, visitors could choose from the various Liebherr “Care Packs” and get a clear and animated overview of the services included.

A fourth terminal consisted of an online store simulation with real product examples, where visitors could intuitively select products and goods and obtain further related information on a multi-touch monitor. This installation was controlled by RFID stickers on the products.

Photos: Ars Electronica / Stepha Farkashazy