New store concept reimagines customer engagement with interactive, immersive, media-rich environment

CHICAGO (July 9, 2015) – Comcast and leading experience design firm ESI Design have created Studio Xfinity, a dynamic new retail environment where play, technology, and entertainment intersect to create an engaging, fun and fully integrated customer experience. Studio Xfinity celebrated its grand opening on July 9^th.

Seeking to create a new retail concept that embodies the Xfinity brand commitment to customer engagement and “entertainment and connectivity, anytime, anywhere,” Comcast tapped ESI Design to conceive an immersive and interactive environment for Studio Xfinity. The result is a reimagined retail experience where new customer service initiatives are premiered and tested, while customers test drive Xfinity products and services on the store’s 46 tablets and touchscreen demo surfaces, play custom-designed multi- and single-player games and engage with special content and programming in the media-rich entertainment space.

“ESI Design created the Studio Xfinity experience so that customers can engage with everything Xfinity connectivity can bring into their lives – fantastic media, incredible games, and exciting communication tools,” said Ed Schlossberg, principal designer and founder of ESI Design. “Studio Xfinity offers seamless access to the newest media and the best in digital culture through a wide range of interactive experiences. It’s the community center of the 21st century—a fun, warm and interesting place where customers will be drawn to visit again and again.”

“From the outset, ESI Design worked with Comcast to create an innovative and immersive retail context that would offer an interactive, engaging customer experience,” said Joe Karadin, director of physical design for ESI Design. “We couldn’t be more excited to have played a critical role in realizing that vision with the design of Studio Xfinity, which not only invites customers to interact and engage with the brand like never before, but keeps the experience fresh through ever-changing and evolving activities, programming and content.”

“With Studio Xfinity, ESI Design has brought Xfinity’s mission to life by creating an entirely new type of customer experience,” said David Williams, Vice President, Regional Sales & Marketing, Comcast.  “Our collaboration has resulted in an environment that offers the best in customer service, while showcasing our products and services in an engaging, interactive, and exciting way.”

Deploying the same design philosophy that it uses to produce engaging experiences for retailers, cultural institutions, museums and other public spaces for more than three decades, ESI Design drew upon its team’s expertise in a variety of specialized disciplines to bring the vision for Studio Xfinity to life, including interactive, digital media, physical and gaming design.

Highlights of Studio Xfinity include:

• A NEW CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT MODEL that provides customers with dedicated service support from the moment they enter the store via a tablet-based, custom designed app. ESI Design worked with the technology design firm Control Group on the technical development of the new Customer Timeline App, which the company is testing at the store. The app helps team members provide service quickly and efficiently by giving them access to customer information, ranging from the services they have to troubleshooting histories.

• THREE FLEXIBLE, MULTIPURPOSE STUDIOS with 12- by 7-foot LED screens and theater-style seating. In each studio, customers interact with each other and the studio screen while playing single- or multi-player games (specially designed by ESI Design for Studio Xfinity), participating in live demos, or test-driving new or existing Xfinity products. The studios’ media can be focused on a unique activity or coordinated together for hosting store-wide events, launches, movie premieres or larger-scale games.

• STATE-OF-THE-ART DEMONSTRATION TOWERS, located throughout Studio Xfinity, offer guests the opportunity to explore products and services via iPads or take part in one-on-one or group demonstrations led by Studio Xfinity team members.

• AN IMMERSIVE AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA ENVIRONMENT with over 800 feet of LED screens and large-scale media installations throughout Studio Xfinity, including a 107-foot-long LED media band wrapping the store’s upper walls. The media screens and installations display brand messages and live or on-demand programming that can coordinate with each of the studios.

To develop the integrated Studio Xfinity experience, ESI Design’s multi-disciplinary team was supported by a group of technology design firms, including Control Group and DMG.

About ESI Design

ESI Design has been a pioneer in experience design and audience engagement since its founding by Edwin Schlossberg in 1977. The firm specializes in imagining and creating immersive and interactive environments that help brands, corporations and cultural institutions engage with audiences and customers in innovative, more meaningful ways. A New York-based, multidisciplinary firm, ESI Design has realized memorable experiences, exhibits and environments for such clients as Best Buy, Barclays, Staples, AT&T, Comcast, The Edward M. Kennedy Institute, eBay, The Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty Foundation and National Park Service, and Beacon Capital. (www.esidesign.com)

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