In Renaissance Italy, when stage designers wanted to create dramatic illumination, they shined candlelight through filters filled with saffron, perhaps, or red wine. In the 21st century, when Cisco Systems Inc. wanted to draw attention to its "Bridge to Possible" campaign accentuating technological optimism at the 2019 Mobile World Congress, it turned to the high-tech magic of LEDs. Visitors immediately found themselves in a central courtyard lit by a canopy of 701 strands of light. Totaling 16,824 LED orbs in all, the filaments created a waterfall of light over the 11,104-square-foot stand. "The biggest challenge was achieving a dynamic visual presence while working within the confines of the space," said Matt Thomas, a designer with MSM Inc., which designed and fabricated the booth.

While guests checked out dozens of demo stations for Cisco technology, the lights pulsed and shimmied with an ethereal choreography based on several 15-second stock videos Cisco and the designers used as inspiration. One video, for example, was a random series of colorful circles floating over a jet-black background, while another showed a chrome-like surface reflecting blue, black, and white hues. "This booth's brilliant lighting neatly tied all of the individual spaces together under one illuminated sky," said one Exhibit Design Awards judge.

The ever-present lights also brightened the staircase that brought guests to the exhibit's upper deck, where 25 private meeting rooms were situated. Frosted glass treatments along the interior walls of the meeting rooms and glass-lined railings permitted visitors in the elevated section to take in a bird's-eye view of the lights that formed a constellation rivaling Orion or Andromeda. E