On a slightly chilly (read very cold!) Wednesday evening, we were lucky enough to attend the Winter Carnival powered and hosted by Philips Hue to enjoy a multi-sensory experience with on the John Lewis Roof Garden in Oxford Street.
The rooftop showcases key elements of Philips Hue smart and controllable lighting in the three cosy dens (aka Carnival Houses) on the roof: the House of Mirrors, the House of Mirrors and the House of Lights.
We walked onto the rooftop and straight through a tunnel of light, collected our lovely light bulb sangria and wandered around the rooftop to scope out the various dens, the little seating areas and benches, the restaurant/bar as well and checking out the rooftop curling.
In the House of Mirrors, a cosy little room with a sofa and crazy mirror reflections, the lights were arranged around the sofa and we were able to sit down and take a souvenir picture. Lights were set up and controlled such that we could decide on what light we looked best in and take our picture. First red and then purple!
The House of Fortune was a simple room with lots of games and the google devices that we could those burning questions too and maybe find out our fortunes, or at least answer some of the trivia questions.
The House of Lights, was the most interesting as it was set-up with the Philips lightstrips and Go Portable devices integrated with the Google devices . It was also set up with the sync box, which is used to capture the scenes from the movie playing and change the lights to match on screen action and setting while playing.
I don’t think the set up of the lights was the best for watching, as lights were changing right in the line of sight of the screen. I would be intrigued to see it set-up within a living room with a big screen and surround sound as I can imagine it makes the experience of watching even more immersive.
I think the use of the light strips and and portable lights to change the room colour using specific phrases or codes and in line with your mood or party theme i.e Christmas Party or Winter Wonderland, Barbie Girl Birthday is great. This room really showed how just subtle changes in lighting can really transform the look and feel, and it seems to be relatively easy to control the changes within an app.
We took a little pit stop in our exploring of rooms to have a go at the carnival games and try the curling (bookable through Eventbrite). Its curling with a twist as there’s no ice and stones with wheels to throw and score points with. It’s good fun and tougher than it looks to play.
There is also a claw machine where you can win prizes such as Google products,.I had no such luck, not even managing to pick-up a ball let alone win anything.
We were warmed up by a range of cocktails and drinks at the bar sangria, mulled cider, with tasty canapes including sliders and croquettes with some candy floss at the end and staying true to the carnival theme!
