In the 21st century, immersive forms of content and immersive experiences become more and more present in our lives. Now more than ever multimedia is taking different forms in our daily routines—ranging from QR codes for ordering food to seeing big walls on buildings with 3D animals moving around.
In September 2022, The Grand Magic Hotel was unveiled, and it is the epitome of what it means to immerse yourself in another world. Developed for two years, the hotel is located in the Paris region and immerses the guests in an imaginary world from the moment they enter. “We want people to feel that the Grand Hall is their ticket to traveling from one world to another,” says Thomas Pintal, Creative Director at Moment Factory.
Merging hospitality and entertainment, the hotel offers a unique 360 multimedia experience engaging new and returning guests throughout their stay. The goal of this experience was to unlock the wondrous sensation of embarking on a magical journey for the guests. “Our strategy was to make the hotel change shape,” adds Pintal. And they did.
In the Grand Hall, any guest has the chance to observe the transition between five different worlds—one during the day and three transitions at
night. According to Pintal, in the Grand Hall’s transformation besides the visual effects, audio was also a valuable aspect. “Creating a captivating sound environment is crucial. As an example, there is a moment when paper planes soar around the Grand Hall, supported by the specialized sound that alters the perception of space, resulting in a truly spectacular experience,” notes Pintal.
When guests arrive, they are welcomed by Mr. Maurice the fictional owner of the Grand Magic Hotel who comes to life in a digital portrait that hangs prominently above the Reception Desk. While guests explore the lobby, they would encounter changing graphics and visuals making the interior of the hotel evolve every single second.
And while this project may seem like the perfect getaway and escape from the real world, it certainly didn’t turn out to be such a success without any obstacles in the way. The main challenge that the team working on the project had to overcome showed up in the early stages of the project. “We wanted to keep the natural light coming into the lobby,” tells Pintal. “Usually if you think of a multimedia installation you would think of a dark space in which you can use the light however you want. The Grand Hall’s huge windows were one of the most attractive aspects of the hotel. We took the decision to keep this feature and the entire installation had to be designed to function effectively both during the day and at night.”
Pintal explains that as a child, staying in hotels was always an exhilarating and eccentric experience. Making this project was a dream come true journey. “For our clients and us at Moment Factory it was just natural to bring our mindsets together to enhance this idea of a journey,” elaborates Pintal. This contributes to the fact that most of the guests of the Grand Magic Hotel are Disney visitors seeking to further expand their adventures.
Despite the challenges that Moment Factory had to overcome on the way, the Grand Magic Hotel won awards for Best Hospitality Concepts from the Hospitality ON Awards and for Immersive Experience from Blooloop Innovation Awards. “We wanted to amplify the experience of hospitality,” elaborates Pintal. He is more than proud with the Grand Magic Hotel brings a different type of hospitality experience which happened to be not just a multimedia show but something on a completely different level. Moreover, he is proud of the team working on the project. He explains that they were extremely dedicated to the project.
“The magic of Moment Factory comes from the innovative use of technology and the exceptional quality of the content we create, which inspires our creative ideas,” concludes Pintal.
