Next month, after the holidays have created a new set of memories, many of you will be avoiding the outdoors. But while your temperatures are uncomfortably low, down here we'll be getting ready for the South Florida Fair. And if I'm very lucky, my family will attend on one of a handful of days before spring when I get to wear my heavy(ish) Miami Dolphins jacket without breaking out in a heat rash.
There's so much to love about the fair, starting with the food. For me, all other treats take a back seat to the almighty funnel cake. Fried dough and powdered sugar. That's it. Additional toppings, from chocolate syrup to fruit, are simply improper. Cotton candy is a distant but delicious second.
Then come the product vendors who promise the best soup mix you ever tasted, the cleanest sneakers you ever wore, and the finest T-shirts that may or may not be officially licensed. This year, they got me for a spray bottle of eyeglass cleaner and a small tub of organic jewelry cleaner, both of which work surprisingly well.
We also have activities that are free, including concerts and pig racing (don't judge). One of the recurring attractions is a sand sculpture. It greets you inside the main building right after your ticket is scanned. The theme changes every year, but it's always a sight to behold.
In 2025, the theme was "Imagine the Future," with a sand sculpture featuring a giant cyborg head and other tech touchpoints (that you're not allowed to touch). The sculpture was about 40 feet long and 12 feet tall. We take playing in the sand very seriously down here.
As if the sculpture wasn't impressive enough, fair officials took it up a notch. Jasper and Shelby Mosher from the Electric Dream Machine (EDM) have been breathing new life into art displays at the fair for more than a decade. This year, they used mostly Epson Pro L1500UH laser projectors to add color, graphics, and AI-generated video.
Next to the sand sculpture was a talking hologram who got his own dedicated EB-PQ2213B projector. His name is "Ribby," and he's the fair's ribbon-shaped mascot. EDM programmed Ribby's multiple speeches that greeted fairgoers. Another display, the "Design Lab," used five more projectors to show simulated carnival rides of the future on a projector mapped computer control panel.
It took three weeks to build the installation and create all the content for the projection mapping using Resolume projection mapping software. “As soon as we heard ‘Imagine the Future’ would be the theme, we saw an opportunity to elevate the projection and dive further into the world of generative AI content," said Jasper Mosher. "This was our first production where we exclusively used AI-generated visuals for all the animated content.”
Displays like that sand sculpture remind me to step back and appreciate how creative our industry can be. It's not just about black boxes and connecting cables. Pro AV technology can still deliver the "wow," and I hope you get a chance to be part of a project or two like that in the New Year.
In the meantime, I wish all of you a joyous holiday season. Y'all can keep your sugar-plum visions; I'll be dreaming of funnel cake.
