The elev8 lifts, an immersive experience by FIX8Group, installed at St. James Quarter shopping center (Edinburgh).

The celebrated £1 billion centre opened two years ago, offering 850,000 square feet of retail space, the UK's second ever W Hotel, 152 unique apartments, 30 restaurants, a Roomzzz aparthotel and the city's first Everyman cinema.

It also houses FIX8Group’s elev8 lifts, which saw the installation of audio-visual display solutions within an elevator, to which everything from simple static marketing video, 2D animation, landscapes, audio experiences and fully immersive 3D worlds can be delivered.

The screens are designed to deliver content to customers in a fully immersive, captivating, and memorable manner and raise awareness of brands and stores inside.

Since we launched in June 2021, the two elevators have made an average of 2,712 journeys per day, totalling 1.96million trips. The elevator experience has probably put smiles on nearly 8 million riders’ faces, and the content in each elevator has 33.1million pixels at play, which over the journeys made is a mind blowing 65 trillion pixels generated!, says Mark Porter, Managing Director at FIX8Group. 

FIX8Group branded the initiative ‘elev8’ and worked collaboratively with investor Nuveen and construction and property consultant Gardiner & Theobald LLP.

“This experience was a UK first, with no other shopping centre offering visitors this unique experience”, says Neil Trenell, Creative Director and Founder of FIX8Group. “It was exciting to get involved with the initial installation, and for the in-house team to develop some amazing content. This ranged from visualising a pre-historic world, to a space station, complete with Scottish flag emblazoned upon it, flying across the screens in front of you. The concept isn’t just restricted to shopping centre elevators, it is multi-functional and can be used in a variety of different environments, with the team now working on a similar project for a major hotel group”.

It has been refreshing to see visitors come out of the elevators smiling, laughing and talking about what they have just seen on the screens. It’s great having a unique environment allowing clients to promote their brands or for us to display our own themed bespoke content. We would love the elevators to become a destination within the pretty amazing environment we have here, comments Antony Ranger, Director at Nuveen. 

Maureen Laing, Partner at Gardiner & Theobald, says: “The elev8 experience was planned to add an extra level of excitement and engagement to the shopping experience and make it more memorable for visitors. There has been engagement on social media, the press and on TikTok as visitors have experienced this unique setting. It has certainly surpassed our expectations and we are considering how we can incorporate such environments in future new build designs and work with FIX8Group in pushing what is possible even further. FIX8Group’s comprehensive technical knowledge and understanding of the client’s needs have produced the awe-inspiring lifts that all visitors must experience and enjoy.”

The team says the solution for St James Quarter has been designed with complete flexibility, so that experiences can be tailored to fit clients’ communication needs and content can be easily changed, updated or maintained centrally as often as required. In addition to shopping centres, it is designed for use in hotels, high rise towers, cruise ships, and stadiums.