Using inflatables indoors at fairs, museums and shops

How much ceiling height does an inflatable need?

Measure the clear height up to beams, light fittings, detectors and sprinklers, not just to the ceiling, and keep a margin to inflate and adjust the piece on site.

In Switzerland, decorations must not cover fire detectors, sprinklers or emergency lighting, and must not be ignited by heat from lamps.

For the 200th anniversary of the Manufacture de Sèvres, Digital Inflatables designed, made and installed 4 inflatable structures of 3 and 6 metres, created by the GGSV studio.

At the Bubble Experience Museum, each of the 10 inflatable heads stands 3.5 metres tall.

Should an inflatable hang or stand on the floor?

Hanging keeps the floor and walkways free but needs rigging points whose permitted load the venue knows; standing on the floor takes up space and must stay stable.

Under the Swiss rigging guideline, the venue operator declares the permitted loads of floors and suspension points, and the organiser has the structural calculation made.

At the Beaugrenelle shopping centre in Paris, each piece of the installation of more than 30 inflatables is 1.5 to 2.5 m tall. In the photos, the inflatables hang under the atrium’s glass roof.

The Swiss Design inflatable ceiling, 35 metres long, was shown at Milano Design Week. Its long white structures run along the ceiling and wrap around the brick pillars.

Is the blower noisy near visitors?

A constant-air inflatable keeps its blower running for the whole opening time, so place the blower away from visitors, behind a partition or in a box, with its air intake kept clear.

Authorities take note: for a park of play inflatables, the town of Pont-Audemer asks for blower noise to be reduced as much as possible with anti-noise covers.

In shops, Henkel’s LE CHAT inflatable replica, 1.3 m tall, is inflated with a rechargeable 12 V pump and stands on a reinforced flat base.

A sealed inflatable without a constant blower avoids this noise; the choice between constant air and sealed air is made at the brief, as the guide to constant-air, sealed and helium inflatables explains.

How do you keep emergency exits clear?

By keeping the inflatable out of escape routes: in Switzerland they must always stay clear, 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) wide for horizontal routes and 0.9 m (2 ft 11 in) for doors.

Enlarge the photo

In large stores, AEAI requires circulation aisles of 1.2 m, main aisles of 1.8 m and escape aisles at least 3.6 m (11 ft 10 in) wide.

Combustible decorations are banned from escape routes, and no decoration may cover exits or their signs. In Germany, each escape route in a place of assembly needs a clear minimum width of 1.20 m (3 ft 11 in) per 200 people.

The fabric matters too: the guide to fire ratings M1, B1 and NFPA 701 explains what each country requires.

How do you plan a night install in a museum or shop?

By fitting everything into the venue’s closing window: for the 10 years of the Beaugrenelle shopping centre, Digital Inflatables installed more than 30 inflatables in 6 hours overnight.

Before the install, measure the access door, the goods lift car and the route to the hall, then check the weight and volume of the folded inflatable and its blower.

A light piece shortens the install: deflated, the Erborian stand fits in a suitcase under 20 kg and sets up in under 10 minutes. At the Bubble Experience Museum, the museum team sets up the heads alone, without outside help.