Dubai – Many people know that Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has one of the highest concentrations of shopping centres and sky scrapers in the world, but few know that all the multimedia material that visitors see in Dubai Mall and at Burj Khalifa, respectively the largest shopping centre and tallest building in the world, is in the hands of a Brazilian.
Reinaldo Mesquita is originally from Recife, but he lived in Rio de Janeiro for many years and moved to the United States around 20 years ago. He is currently the production and multimedia manager for the shopping centre area at Emaar, the real-estate company responsible for construction and administration of Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa, and he lives in Dubai.
Last week, Mesquita took part of the Brazilian delegation in Dubai for participation in the Big 5 Show, in the building sector, on a tour of some of the attractions of the complex that includes the shopping centre and building.
The group of representatives of the Social Service for Industry (Sesi) of Santa Catarina and of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, including ANBA, went to Dubai Mall to visit Kidzania, one of the theme parks within the enterprise. The site reproduces a small city where kids can play at being adults.
The games serve to teach notions of professions like journalism, dentistry, fireman, police officer, construction worker, hairdresser and aircraft pilot, among others, as well as showing the kids the importance of education and also of the rational use of money.
During the visit, the park administrator, or “governor”, the North American Will Edwards, introduced the group to Mesquita, who has always worked with TV and video and even helped set up the children’s television studio at Kidzania. The attraction is a franchise developed by Mexican businessmen.
Mesquita’s team is responsible from production of videos to the installation of monitors and displays throughout the complex. That includes the clips exhibited in the elevator that reaches the belvedere at Burj Khalifa, on the 124th floor, and the enormous multimedia panels that stretch along the escalator that take visitors from the reception to the elevators.
Mesquita, who is married and has two children, offered to guide the visitors and took them to the marine aquarium, the water animal zoo inside the shopping centre and also to Burj Khalifa. “Most of the fresh-water fish are from Brazil," he said, regarding the animals shown at the zoo. There are piranhas, catfish and pacus, fish common to Brazilian rivers, especially in the Amazon.
At Burj Khalifa, the elevator shoots to the “At the Top”, as the observatory is called, at 10 metres per second. There, guests have a 360º view of the city at an amazing height. The building has 160 floors and is 800 metres tall.
*Translated by Mark Ament
