Mazak Product Presentations, Göppingen/Milan, October 2021

Mazak Product Presentations, Göppingen/Milan, October 2021

The world's largest trade fair for metal machining takes place every two years in Milan or Hanover and has a fixed place in Yamazaki Mazak's schedule. The "Exposition Mondiale de la Machine Outil" (EMO), the industry's premier trade fair, was held in the northern Italian city in October 2021 under pandemic conditions. Mazak is one of the leading manufacturers of state-of-the art manufacturing solutions for metal machining and presented eleven new machines at the fair – including two global firsts and a European premiere as well as a whole range of automation and technology solutions.

With Mazak's German customers unable to attend the fair due to the pandemic, the company issued invitations to a hybrid trade fair event" at its site in Göppingen, where it presented its new products and provided the opportunity of a digital visit to the EMO in Milan. With our nextSPACES solution package, we created the technical prerequisites for the trade fair guests to be able to take part in the Mazak appearance in Italy via this clever, digital extension in addition to the on-site experience in the branch.

For this "techSPACE" it was our task to implement the live connection from Göppingen to Milan at the specified times. During the video transmission, a guide gave a live tour of the booth, whereby we enabled bidirectional interaction between the moderator of the in-house fair and the presenter at Fiera Milano.

We ensured compact, cost-conscious implementation of this live transmission. The guide in Milan was equipped with a smartphone, an image stabilising gimbal and earpods, allowing him to move around the booth unimpeded by his equipment. As the existing infrastructure and mobile communication set-up proved to be insufficient and not reliable enough, we provided Mazak's expansive booth with its own appropriately designed WLAN network to ensure a stable, high-quality data connection. We therefore needed just one N&M technician on site in Italy to step in with replacement equipment in the event of an emergency and monitor the performance of the WLAN network.

In order to present Mazak's customers with a professional website for the in-house fair and live link, we programmed our come2join collaboration platform in the company's corporate design. Before and after the transmissions, those attending the in-house fair had the opportunity to visit a virtual showroom: we programmed the 98-inch touchscreen – which had previously shown the video images – with touch applications that could be used to access a series of interviews with exhibitors, for example. With these clever technical solutions, Mazak was able to use digital extensions in a targeted manner to increase the reach of the brand presence at EMO. Content produced for the hybrid and decentralized format can then be used sustainably for further communication.