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Bentley Prince Street Launches Digital Carpet Sample Room

Developed by Tricycle, the technology not only assists designers, but helps eliminate carpet-sample waste.

Meaghan O'Neill -- Interior Design, 7/21/2006 12:00:00 AM

What better time than NeoCon World's Trade Fair for a manufacturer to launch a highly innovative technology system in its new Chicago showroom? Bentley Prince Street, a subsidiary of Interface, took the opportunity last month to introduce to the design industry not only its newest space, but also its latest and greatest digital simulation technology system, the Zoom Room. Developed by Tricycle, a four-year-old sustainable technology company focused on creating all manner of digital solutions for the interiors industry, the Zoom Room is a three-dimensional visualization tool that provides customers with instantaneous, life-sized recreations of custom color carpet products in an actual room environment. An effective, digitally-accurate design tool, the Zoom Room also touts significant environmental benefits.

To combat the problem of presenting products in a scale appropriate to their end-use design, the Zoom Room uses a system of connected projectors and screens to create a full-scale impression of the room, showing color carpets in front of, below, and around the viewer. The image can also be reduced and saved digitally for future reference or to print color images.

“This technology gives our customers a way to actually see our products—and even to walk on them—full-scale in their intended environment immediately, without waiting for a small product sample,” says Bentley Prince Street CEO Anthony Minite. Courtesy of its three-dimensional simulation, the Zoom Room doesn’t just assist designers with the specification process, it also helps Bentley Prince Street move toward its goal of achieving a zero-impact environmental footprint by the year 2020. With this hi-tech tool, the manufacturer can generate and hand out far fewer carpet samples, thereby preserving non-renewable resources and reducing landfill waste—a crucial environmental issue in the carpet industry.

According to Tricycle CEO Jamie Harrison, Zoom Room technology could be used to virtually display any type of interior surface (floorcoverings, wallcoverings, furniture finishes, even artwork), combinations of products, or products that are out-of-stock or that have been designed but not yet manufactured.

“Based on the response we’ve seen so far, there is no question this is something the market wants and needs,” says Catherine Minervini, vice president of marketing at Bentley Prince Street.