Johnnie Walker Princes Street

Johnnie Walker Princes Street is a visitor experience like no other. To celebrate the brand’s 200th anniversary, spirits giant Diageo marked the occasion with an unprecedented £185 million investment in whisky tourism across Scotland. The centrepiece is Edinburgh’s flagship Johnnie Walker Princes Street.

Global experience design and production company BRC Imagination Arts was Lead Agency, managing the entire project and appointing contractors for every element of the complex brief. Following separate, rigorous tender processes, BRC engaged technical solutions specialist WL as lead integrator for lighting and AV.

To achieve the bold vision for this global flagship attraction, a vast and robust technical infrastructure was required to seamlessly integrate the multi-discipline elements and enhance the overall experience.

WL delivered a complete turnkey, multi-discipline and fully integrated technical solution. This focused around building a unified digital canvas throughout the complex venue, connecting a variety of video, lighting and immersive audio technologies, all controlled via a pioneering media server platform.

The flexible technological infrastructure allowed the spaces to be easily reconfigured for different uses at the push of a button, providing maximum ROI. WL also provided consultancy over product selection and development and offered bespoke engineering services to create custom products and solutions where required.

Set within a landmark transformed, offering eight floors of breathtaking bars, event spaces, and city views, Johnnie Walker Princes Street already had the ingredients to stand alone as one of Scotland’s finest attractions. But add into the mix a laser focus on creating story-rich, transformative guest experiences, and you have a destination unlike any other in Scotland.

There are experiences that are visual, immersive, and involve storytelling, and there is the rare opportunity to taste whisky directly from the barrels in a live maturation warehouse or examine historical documents from 1820 at the side of the Johnnie Walker archivist.

The main experience, the Johnnie Walker Journey of Flavour tour, is brought to life by exceptional guides, using technology and performance arts. Every guest on that tour is served whisky drinks tailored to their personal tastes, thanks to Diageo’s innovative FlavorPrint technology.

The project has won a plethora of awards since its opening. Just some of the accolades it has already obtained include: Green Tourism 2021, Gold Award, Muse Creative Awards 2022, Silver, Experiential & Immersive—Retail, The Drum Awards for Marketing 2022, Best Brand Experience or Event, Scottish Design Awards 2022, Design Grand Prix, Icons of Whisky 2023, Best Distillery Visitor Experience, and Visit Scotland, 5-Star Attraction Status.

This was a milestone project for WL’s Installation and System Design teams, who worked against the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to deliver a solution of this size and scale across multiple areas of the business.

Due to the need to preserve the architecture and fabric of the existing, historic building, WL designed an infrastructure and technical solution to adapt to the venue’s structural configuration.

Working in close collaboration with numerous other (international) contractors, WL provided over 360 technical drawings. Integration with building-wide IT was crucial to ensuring the flexibility, efficiency, performance, and reliability of the systems, all built on a broadcast-grade infrastructure. The multi-location site required a distributed system, with individual areas interacting with each other across a unified core system – spread across three server rooms.

In addition to the main part of the construction period falling within an unprecedented time of shutdowns and restrictions caused by the pandemic, the new Johnnie Walker Princess Street Experience is housed in a very historic building in Edinburgh’s west end, set at the beginning of a very busy main street with a tramline running alongside.

Logistically, delivering materials to site had to be on a “just in time” basis, so WL’s facility in Glasgow became a focus for the preparation to ensure we could meet the tight deadlines this project required. With the many different trades involved, the operation and coordination of running multiple teams, across many areas, also became critical to maintain project programming.

The pandemic posed considerable challenges but in the face of them, Johnnie Walker’s Striding Man marched on. It not only stands as one of the best new attractions in a city renowned for its hospitality and visitor experiences, but also sets a new standard in how guests are welcomed and completely immersed in a world of flavour, storytelling, and excitement.

The multi-purpose venue includes two rooftop bars, a terrace with city views and an immersive, interactive experience taking visitors on a journey through the 200-year history of Johnnie Walker, the world’s bestselling scotch whisky. Across eight floors, different zones feature tasting hubs, live entertainment, the Johnnie Walker archives, the performing arts, and host-led tours.

Sophisticated automation, interaction, and dynamic control of all media elements were required, along with the integration of tracking technologies, which automatically updated content based on positions of moving equipment.

To achieve the bold vision for this global flagship attraction, a vast and robust technical infrastructure was required to seamlessly integrate the multi-discipline elements and enhance the overall experience.

Working closely with the detailed architectural blueprints, WL assisted, delivered, and engineered the state-of-the-art installation specification for full in-house audio coverage and sound levels.

WL supplied, installed, and commissioned over 300 speakers across all eight floors of this iconic building covering all areas of Show as well as public areas.

Background music for public non-show rooms is provided by Diageo’s audio players.

To enhance the multiple interactive zones and experiences throughout, the lighting, combined with audio and video elements had to help achieve different moods/aesthetics/colour schemes.

Show areas were equipped with CAC sensors which the main control system can use to automatically adjust the level of the music in the room dependant on the background noise level.

VIP areas are equipped with Bang and Olufsen speakers. The rooms offer Bluetooth connectivity to the audio system for third-party devices. The pairing process is achieved via the iPad control interface. The operator can wirelessly route third-party personal devices through to the speakers in the room via the user interface on the iPad.

Sound effects embedded in the videos are sent to the audio system via the Dante network.

Sophisticated automation, interaction, and dynamic control of all media elements were required, along with integration of tracking technologies, which automatically updated content based on positions of moving equipment.

To achieve the bold vision for this global flagship attraction, a vast and robust technical infrastructure was required to seamlessly integrate the multi-discipline elements and enhance the overall experience.

Working closely with the detailed architectural blueprints, WL assisted, delivered, and engineered the state-of-the-art installation specification for the external architectural lighting, house and full show lighting and systems, large LED and projection display systems, in addition to immersive audio and control solutions throughout.

While site works were underway and technical designs had been approved, WL conducted a massive off-site prebuild and factory acceptance process at its locations in London and Glasgow.

All lighting equipment installed was of the latest specification. A lot of the kit required bespoke design and fabrication, engineering, and system integration – to suit the configuration of the building and different spaces.

To enhance the multiple interactive zones and experiences throughout, the lighting, combined with audio and video elements had to help achieve different moods/aesthetics/colour schemes.

The main attraction is a 90-minute guided tour where guests are immersed in a full-sensory, emotionally engaging, and transformative experience firmly based in the brand’s DNA as visionary innovators of whisky, ideas, and social connection.

To be as sustainable as possible the latest LED technology was specified for long life and low power consumption due to the 24/7 operational demands of the attraction.

In addition to the 9000+ fixtures, control devices, and LED fittings across all eight floors of this iconic building covering all areas of show, exterior and BOH lighting, White Light also supplied and commissioned an extensive lighting control system that allowed recall and intricate control of all show spaces. These systems were primarily based on the ETC EOS industry-leading lighting control hardware and software platforms, with additional control interfaces provided from MOSIAC & PARADIGM for specific local control locations and building systems integration and to help add focus and creativity to the exterior facade lighting.

The multi-purpose venue includes two rooftop bars, a terrace with city views and an immersive, interactive experience taking visitors on a journey through the 200-year history of Johnnie Walker, the world’s bestselling scotch whisky. Across eight floors, different zones feature tasting hubs, live entertainment, the Johnnie Walker archives, the performing arts, and host-led tours.

Sophisticated automation, interaction and dynamic control of all media elements were required, along with the integration of tracking technologies, which automatically updated content based on the positions of moving equipment.

To achieve the bold vision for this global flagship attraction, a vast and robust technical infrastructure was required to seamlessly integrate the multi-discipline elements and enhance the overall experience.

Working closely with the detailed architectural blueprints, WL assisted, delivered and engineered the state-of-the-art installation specification for the large LED and projection display systems.

While site works were underway and technical designs had been approved, WL conducted a massive off-site prebuild and factory acceptance process at its locations in London and Glasgow.

All AV equipment installed was of the latest specification. A lot of the kit required bespoke design and fabrication, engineering and system integration – to suit the configuration of the building and different spaces.

To enhance the multiple interactive zones and experiences throughout, the lighting, combined with audio and video elements had to help achieve different moods/aesthetics/colour schemes.

The main show video system is driven by 7th Sense video servers located in the comms rooms. The video distribution system is used to transport video signals from the comms rooms to the showrooms.

A captioning system allows the show to be enjoyed by speakers of other languages, and by those hard of hearing.

Ancillary video system is driven by BrightSign.

The main attraction is a 90-minute guided tour where guests are immersed in a full-sensory, emotionally engaging, and transformative experience firmly based in the brand’s DNA as visionary innovators of whisky, ideas, and social connection.

To be as sustainable as possible the latest LED technology was specified for long-life and low-power consumption due to the 24/7 operational demands of the attract