More than 50 projectors have been deployed at the Framelesss digital art experience in London, with the ability to project images that can be captured well on social media a key consideration.
More than 50 Panasonic projectors, accompanied by over 158 surround sound speakers, have been deployed in London’s new digital art experience Frameless, with the ambition to “set art free”.
The new 30,000 sq ft venue in London’s Marble Arch makes use of mirrors and the wrapping of projectors in mirror foil to give the effect of visual infinity, using six-sided projection to place visitors at the heart of an almost spherical land, sea or city scape. It also uses semi-transparent screens in a darkened room to create a maze of content to get lost in.
Frameless worked with its integration partner Creative Technology to organise a competitive shoot-out with three leading projector manufacturers before making its choice.
Panasonic’s pixel-quadrupling technology in its RQ22K and RQ35K projectors produced stunning 4K+ visuals at 20,000-30,500 lumens. The projectors deliver uniformity in brightness and colour performance, allowing images to be seamlessly blended, avoiding distractions or blemishes that could break the connection with the viewer.
In addition to the immersive experience, Frameless was keen for the projected images to be easily captured on video and in photos for social media.
“The ability for visitors to share images and videos of the spectacular projected art on social media was an important marketing consideration,” said Simon Kentish, chief technology officer at Frameless. “Many of the projectors produced images that did not capture well, but, if possible, the Panasonic projector images looked even better on camera.”
The other major consideration was reliability. With a build time for the venue of just over a year, timings were tight. AV equipment would need to be installed and set up while there was still a lot of building dust in the venue.
On top of that, the venue needed projectors that would continue to deliver spectacular images day in and day out for a high-profile London attraction. The filter-less design and dust-proof optical system, alongside the high-performance cooling system ensures the projectors deliver 20,000 hours of real maintenance-free use.
Frameless also uses Panasonic’s MZ16 projection series, which delivers long-lasting brightness and colour performance at 10,000lm, 13,000lm, and 16,000lm.
Using more than 50 Panasonic projectors in total, the art projections inside the attraction are delivered by 479 million pixels and one million lumens of brightness and vivid colour. Art seeps into every inch of space.
Ultra Short Throw (UST) lenses are used with 80% of the projectors. These lenses allow projectors to be hidden in the ceilings, so as not to distract from the immersive illusion, and to project at angles that surround the visitor without casting shadows.
“The content creators have pushed the capabilities of the projectors to their limits and the incredible attributes of the Panasonic projectors and periscope UST lenses have enabled us to create completely immersive experiences across both large (up to 9m high) and challenging spaces,” said Kentish.
Reference : AVinteractive
