Our work – Canon U.S.A., Melville, New York
The History of Canon wall
Twenty-five feet of touch screen in Canon U.S.A.’s headquarters in Melville: eleven displays, a timeline from 1933 to today, and the story behind every year. It replaced the wall we built there in 2012, and it runs on software we wrote.
The wall, running
Ninety-three years of Canon, eleven displays wide.
Recorded from the wall’s own software at its full resolution, 11,880 by 1,920 pixels. Visitors open stories along the timeline while the scene behind it moves from a reef to Tokyo, open ocean and New York.
- feet across
- 25
- displays, edge to edge
- 11
- years on the timeline, from 1933
- 93
- photographs, stories and films
- 304
How it works
Touch a year, and its story rises out of the timeline.
Touch a year
The timeline runs along the foot of all eleven displays, from 1933 to 2026. Touch a year and its photographs rise out of it and settle over the scene; then each one comes forward in turn with its caption.
Eleven stories at once
Each display covers its own stretch of the timeline, runs its own story and has its own directional speaker – so a group can spread out along the wall, and each person hears their section without disturbing the one next to them.
A scene behind it
Between visitors a scene plays behind the timeline – a reef, open ocean, Tokyo or New York – so the wall looks alive when nobody is touching it.
A new year, every year
We add each year as it happens. Since the wall opened, 2024, 2025 and 2026 have joined the timeline.
Changing the scene
Canon changes the scene from an iPad or an iPhone.
Nobody has to touch the computer behind the wall. Someone at Canon opens a page on an iPad or an iPhone and picks a scene, and the wall changes within seconds.
Four scenes today – a reef, open ocean, Tokyo and New York. Adding another is a video file on our side, and it appears on the scene page beside the others.
The project
From the 2012 wall to the one running today.
2012
The first wall – ours too
Canon’s first history wall went up in 2012, when nothing like it was on the market – so we built it. Custom glass with a wire mesh inside it sensed a touch through the glass; each of its three glass sections ran on its own computer, and software we wrote kept all three in step.
2023 – the wall running today
- 01
Need
We built Canon’s first history wall in 2012. In 2023 it was time for the next one, and Canon came back to us.
- 02
Input
Ninety years of Canon history – photographs, dates and captions – and a wall twenty-five feet long to tell it on.
- 03
Plan
One timeline across eleven displays, each with its own stretch of years and its own speaker, so several people can use the wall at once – and a scene behind it for the hours nobody does.
- 04
Solution
Eleven displays edge to edge, eleven directional speakers, and software written for this wall: the timeline, the stories, the scenes, and a page to change them from an iPad or an iPhone.
- 05
Execution
On July 19, 2023 the displays went up in the morning, and by 7:30 that evening the wall was running.
- 06
Happy client
Still running, and kept current – each year we add the next one to the timeline. Canon has had a history wall of ours in its headquarters since 2012.
What we did
- Eleven displays, mounted edge to edge
- Touch timeline software, written for it
- Eleven directional speakers, one per display
- Stories loaded for 66 dates, 1933–2026
- Four ambient scenes behind the timeline
- Scene control from an iPad or an iPhone
- Installed and running in a single day
- A new year added every year
The wall
- Client
- Canon U.S.A.
- Where
- Headquarters, Melville, New York
- Running since
- July 19, 2023
- Size
- 25 feet – eleven displays, 11,880 × 1,920 pixels
- Sound
- Eleven directional speakers, one per display
- Software
- Written by Interactive AV-IT for this wall
- Timeline
- 1933 to 2026, a year added every year
- Before it
- Our 2012 wall – touch through glass, in three sections
Why clients stay
- 2004
- In business since
- 950+
- People we support
- 60 days
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