Project: 360 degree movie projection

For many years, visitors of the Limburgs Museum have been able to make an audiovisual journey through time in the Historoscoop. Through the use of a 360 degree panoramic projection, 250,000 years of history of the area we nowadays call Limburg pass by, behind the semi-transparent projection screen authentic collection items are invisibly displayed, by lighting them at the right moment during the film, they appear to the viewers as an extra dimension behind the film. After many years of intensive use, the equipment used at the time was due for replacement, given its age, simply replacing it with new was not an option. Image ratio, resolution, video and audio connections, control, etc., much has become digital over time and the renovation was preceded by thorough preparation. To name a few examples; the halogen pinspots with color filters formerly used have been replaced by RGBW LED fixtures, individually controlled by DMX. The 12 lamp projectors with a 4:3 aspect ratio were replaced by 9 laser projectors with a 16:10 WUXGA aspect ratio. Previously, each projector made used of a separate video server, in the new situation only one Dataton Watchpax media server takes care of the entire image processing.

In the first phase of this project, ShowTheme dismantled the existing equipment of the Historoscoop, then the existing cabling was inventoried, most of this cabling was removed and replaced, the cabling that could be retained was relabeled and documented. After this, all new equipment was installed after which the further finishing took place. The assembly of the 9 laser projectors, which are physically a lot larger than the previous projectors, let to the appropriate challenges. To ensure that all projectors have the same distance to the projection screen, a custom-curved black powder-coated scaffolding tube was used. The lateral air cooling of the laser projectors and the fact that they are all mounted close together in a circle, would cause temperature problems because the warm air is blown around in between the projectors, causing the temperature to continuously rise. To prevent this, custom airflow dividers were developed that ensure the cold air is sucked in from below and the warm air is blown out upwards.

A Dataton Watchpax 62 media server with Watchout software was used to display the 360 degree video, this has four 4K graphic outputs, to connect the nine WUXGA projectors to this Datapath FX4 video processors were used, these divide a 4K signal into three WUXGA signals. By using so-called “Virtual Displays” in Watchout, edge-blending and geometry correction can be applied for each projector, to make use of this function the upgrade to Dataton’s new version Watchout 7 was required. Furthermore a Focusrite audio interface is connected to the Watchpax, which provides the Dolby 5.1 surround sound channels.

The control system of this installation ensures automatic enabling en disabling of the experience according to a pre-programmed time schedule, the installation is also equipped with a touchscreen for manual operation in exceptional situations. The control system also continuously monitors the connected equipment and can automatically send email notifications in the event of deviations. An Extron IP Link Pro control system is used in this project, programmed in the python-based Extron ControlScript for the highest flexibility and all possibilities for developing custom device drivers and routines.

We wish the Limburgs Museum and its guests a lot of fun visiting the renovated Historoscoop.