PAVE System guides us through a striking retail transformation at Sleeplab in Metro Paragon, Singapore, where an LED videowall, and astute AV additions, show that retail spaces can compete on experience as much as product.
Retail has never faced more pressure than it does today. In an era when almost any product can be ordered online and delivered the same day, bricks-and-mortar stores must offer something to justify the ‘physical trip’. When Metro, one of Singapore’s most established department stores, embarked on its retail transformation journey, it set out to provide that justification in spades, choosing technology as the tool to achieve this outcome.
The centrepiece of the revamp is the Sleeplab on Level 4 of its Paragon store, where Metro sells mattresses, bed linen, and bedding accessories. Shoppers can already experience what it might feel like to sleep on a new mattress with the tactile and physical interaction available in the retail space.
Technology steps in to augment the experience by putting shoppers inside a fully realised sensory environment.
A sweeping U-shaped Samsung LED videowall wraps around the Sleeplab display area with engaging content enhancing the experience for shoppers. An ambient sound system built around Bose speakers layers in complementary audio.
Metro came with a clear vision for the project. Wang Heng Thean, sales director at PAVE System, says: “They already had the concept in mind and content requirement worked out. They knew the pixel quantity they needed. Our role was to advise on which brand was most reliable and best suited to their needs.”
Effective LED
The physical form of the Sleeplab videowall presented the first significant challenge. The installation spans approximately 60.72m by 2.7m in total length, configured in a U-shape that wraps around three sides of the display area. The LED pixel pitch chosen was 2.5mm, which was deemed fine enough to deliver high-resolution imagery at the viewing distances found within the space. Samsung was selected as the LED manufacturer. Wang outlines the rationale, noting that reliability and strong local technical support were key factors in the decisionmaking process.
On the processing side, the entire system runs on Samsung’s ecosystem. Samsung’s S Box and Flow Box media players handle video distribution zone by zone across the U-shaped canvas.
Content management is handled through Samsung MagicInfo, which is also used across the wider store deployment for scheduling and updating content on demand.
The physical installation presented its own set of constraints, beginning with the nature of the building itself. Paragon is an established mall, and structural interventions were limited. Fire hose cabinets, emergency exit doors, and other fixed elements could not be moved, requiring the team to design around the existing conditions. A particular challenge was ensuring the LED panels met perfectly at the corners and navigating the joining angle. Wang explains: “The corner was one of the key challenges. We had to take extra precaution to make sure the two LED panels met at nearly 90-degrees and as closely as possible to each other, so that the video could move seamlessly from one side to the other.”
The work schedule added further complexity. Because the department store remained open for business throughout the installation period, all works had to be carried out at night, between midnight and 6am. Hoarding was erected each evening to protect the active floor areas from dust and disruption, with a single narrow working corridor providing access for the team to mount brackets and fit panels. Everything was cleaned up before the store opened each morning.
Wang says: “The show had to go on, the department store was still selling its products. We could only go in from midnight until 6 am, pack everything up, and come back the next night. It was a very tight schedule, but we completed everything within about a month.”
The content piece
One of the trickiest technical problems the team encountered was not with the hardware but in the content pipeline. The Korean content provider delivered video assets as a single unified file, which is a logical way to produce content for a seamless, continuous canvas. But Samsung’s processing architecture requires video to be divided into discrete segments, one per media player zone. A single piece of video could not be fed into the system.
PAVE System’s in-house team, had to work with Samsung to develop a splicing methodology that would cut the video into precisely aligned segments that would re-join seamlessly across the U-shaped display. It was new territory for the team.
Rachel Teo, assistant marketing executive at PAVE System, recalls: “Initially, the process was challenging. A key part of the journey involved implementing video editing with guidance from the Samsung team. Once that was in place, a structured template was created to organise and segment the content, laying a solid foundation for future productions.”
Considering the end product, Wang is candid about the significance of the achievement: “With the length of 60.72m, this is the longest wall we have done. To complete it within a month and with the site business as usual, I am quite heartened that we actually pulled it off.”
With the template now established, future content updates can be processed by the PAVE System team without needing to repeat the learning curve from scratch.
New retail
The Sleeplab videowall is the headline element of PAVE System’s work at Metro Paragon, but the deployment extends further across the store. On Levels 1 and 2, Samsung flat-panel displays serve as store directories, all managed through MagicInfo so that content can be updated centrally and on the fly.
Throughout the boutique areas across multiple floors, 105-in Samsung LCD panels have been mounted to showcase brand content for the specialist retailers occupying those spaces, again controlled via MagicInfo.
A notably creative solution was required for the Level 4 cooking demonstration area, where Metro hosts celebrity chef sessions and live cooking classes. Ceiling-mounted televisions display feeds from an Aver camera pointed at the cooking action, so that audiences throughout the space have a clear view of the demonstration.
The problem was cabling. The cooking area sits in the centre of the floor, and running cables back to a wall would have meant laying 50m to 100m of cable across the space which was impractical both aesthetically and logistically.
PAVE System’s answer was a wireless AV transmission system built around the Wolfvision Cynap, which allows presenters to share content from a laptop or iPad to the ceiling-mounted displays without a single cable crossing the floor. The receiver is integrated into each TV, and connection requires nothing more than locating the system’s ID and transmitting wirelessly.
Rounding out the installation is a compact outdoor-facing LED, approximately 2m by 3m, with a 2.9 mm pixel pitch. Mounted indoors but positioned to face through a window toward the street, it enables a tenant to push advertising content to passing pedestrians without requiring an external-grade enclosure. The display is protected from rain, though it receives direct sun, making the 2.9mm pitch a practical choice for visibility at short to medium pedestrian distances.
As physical retail continues its evolution, the Sleeplab offers a compelling insight into modern technology-led retail experiences.
Erwin Wuysang-Oei, chief executive officer of Metro (Private) Limited, sums up the drive to modernise retail spaces: “Shoppers are invested in experiential moments when they visit a department store today. It is a venue for discovery and experiences, and Metro hopes to excite shoppers with our retail transformation efforts that are engaging, while helping shoppers uncover new brands to connect with. In parallel, we want our investments to help us optimise our operations and drive greater value for our brand in the long run. We are delighted to be working with Samsung where we can lean on their advanced digital capabilities to bring our vision to life.”