Case study - iSlide

iSlide is a newly-founded social media experience, making it possible to project custom images in water slides, and even select a lighting theme. The swimmer has the choice to have a photograph taken of their slide experience, which can be viewed across a range of tablets upon exiting the slide. Swimmers can then e-mail the selected photos to themselves, and proceed to share them across social media platforms of their own choosing.

The cutting-edge system is currently running at 11 different locations throughout Europe, and processes over 50,000 unique photos per month. Constructors custom-built the innovative technology for the tablets, making it possible to upgrade and/or add new swimming pool locations. Total precision and optimal stability is ensured for the underlying technical infrastructure to send, and temporarily store content. iSlide was awarded the ANWB Innovation Prize in 2014 for its ground-breaking notion.

Concept

Edwin Keijzer of iSlide approached us with the following case, and the next step in the progression of iSlide:

The goal would be to seamlessly integrate additional features, allowing for a completely interactive experience for the swimmer. Swimmers would have the opportunity to select lighting and sound effects at the entrance of the water slide, and to specify if they want a photograph to be taken or not. During the sliding experience, swimmers can press interactive buttons to score points, competitively. At the exit of the slide, the points, alongside the optional photograph, will be displayed to the swimmer so that sliders may compete for the best score. Ultimately, it must be possible for the swimmer to look up their optional photograph on the tablets at the exit of the water slide, and to share their content via email or text message.

Development

Constructors implemented the temporary and reliably safe storage of applicable photos to a specialised server, unique to each pool. These servers run the vital back-end infrastructure, along with Constructors’ flawlessly-built web application, in which photos can be looked-up, and sent via the tablets for optimal user-experience. As the web application can be opened either in portrait of landscape mode, the application has also been made fully mobile-friendly.

The servers are remotely updated to maintain comprehensive security, and to allow for system and web application updates. During the update times, it is crucial that the systems are not interrupted and, as such, Constructors’ exceptional stability is paramount.

Result

The entire development process took 1.5 months and has enabled the consistent update of all iSlide systems and web applications with the touch of a button - an update on the 11 slide locations throughout Europe can take place in 10 minutes. Via an encrypted VPN, Constructors and iSlide can log in to the server to perform any maintenance. Constructors’ diligence is demonstrated through 50,000 iSlide photographs being processed per month in 11 European locations, without any downtime in the system’s running history.

Safe, reliable, and without downtime.