Friday, March 29, 2024

2023 Thea Awards: Touring the cosmos

AV tools play a key role at Thea-honored Shanghai Astronomy Museum

by James Careless

In November 2022, the Shanghai Astronomy Museum (SAM) was named as a recipient of the TEA Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Science Center category. (The award will be officially conferred at the TEA Thea Awards Gala in April 2023.) It’s a prestigious recognition of the extensive, 420,000-square-foot (38,000-square-meter) facility, open since July 2021 and home to the world’s largest planetarium plus several exhibitions that express the scale and majesty of the cosmos in ways designed to be as awe- inspiring as they are educational, making the most of audio-video enhancement.

From the Thea Judging Committee’s official remarks: “The Shanghai Astronomy Museum utilizes bold immersive spaces and imaginative experiences. Visitors are encouraged to momentarily forget the limitations of space and time in the museum, leaving reality and Earth behind as the perspective of ‘seeing the Earth’ is enlarged.”

With the assistance of Wincomn Technology, Marvel Vision and Zhongqing Yingye Group, projectors, media playback and show control systems made by Christie are now helping deliver the content to impress and educate SAM visitors at many of the Museum’s featured exhibitions. Wincomn Technology is a distributor of Christie projectors in China, while Marvel Vision is a distributor of Christie Pandoras Box media and show control systems there. These companies provided technical consulting, program design, product delivery, and systems integration services to the Museum during the SAM project.

The “Evolution of Earth” exhibit uses live motion video projected onto a 66-foot (20-meter) diameter globe to show how the Earth has changed over its lifetime. The content is displayed by seven Christie D20WU-HS 20,600 lumen projectors.

The “Interstellar” exhibit features interactive projections along a covered bridge, where visitors’ images are displayed in real-time as galactic stardust on a wall 196 feet (60 meters) long and 13 feet (four meters) high. The visuals in “Interstellar” are provided by 10 GS Series 10,875 lumen projectors.

In the “Odyssey” exhibit, content is projected onto a 164-foot (50-meter), ribbon-like “cosmic thread” using 10 DWU630-GS projectors plus Pandoras Box Software. “The content projected on the gallery is a mysterious interstellar river,” says Tony Chen, Wincomn’s General Manager. “Visitors can interact with the display by touching the wall, creating a wonderful experience of being in space, full of fun and novelty.”

Challenges and solutions

Throughout the SAM, AV technology is out in full force – meeting display challenges of all kinds as projections wow visitors.

“Our HS Series and GS Series projectors are well-suited to challenging installation spaces like the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, thanks to their high light output, ultra short throw lenses, and small form factors,” notes Suhan Bijai, Associate Product Manager, Christie. Supporting vivid imagery is Christie’s BoldColor technology. It uses red and blue laser diodes, video processing and specialized software to create the color balance needed to deliver bright, life-like color, and an enhanced visual experience.

“This is one of the most unique projects we have embarked on in China, not just in terms of its physical scale, but also for the types of advanced AV technologies that have been implemented across the entire facility,” says April Qin, Christie’s Senior Sales Director for China.

There were significant challenges associated with translating the Evolution of Earth, Interstellar and Odyssey concepts into reality.

Evolution of Earth is displayed by seven Christie D20WU-HS 20,600 lumens 1DLP laser projectors. Photo Credit: Wincomn Technology

A case in point: To make the “Evolution of Earth” projection onto the sphere both realistic and believable, Wincomn needed to address three major technical challenges.

“First, the astronomy museum is a place for popular science, so projection displays are required to reproduce imagery with the highest level of accuracy,” says Chen. “Second, due to space constraints, it is necessary to ensure that the projection perfectly covers the entire sphere, and to place the projectors so that the content will not be obstructed by other building structures. Third, because the outer sphere projection has no latitude and longitude lines to refer to, it is difficult to calibrate the displayed images to deliver perfectly full coverage of the entire sphere.”

Through a combination of hard work, the projectors’ built-in warping and blending capabilities, and meticulous calibration Wincomn was able to deliver perfectly aligned, seamless imagery on the sphere and fulfill the guest experience vision – to make it seem as if the Earth’s actual 4.6-billion-year history is unfolding right before their eyes.

Wincomn also tackled the challenge of projecting onto the “Interstellar” covered bridge. Making this happen was no mean feat: The width of this gallery was relatively narrow and there was extremely limited space to mount the projectors. In response, Wincomn chose to use projectors with ultra short throw lenses. Chen explained that these were placed in custom-designed mechanical structures, for precise installation on the ceiling.

The Thea Judging Committee noted that “Each space, whether it be a long corridor, narrow space, bridge, or dome, is carefully and purposefully crafted for the exhibit,” and “Each exhibit’s design fully capitalizes on the opportunities afforded by the museum’s architectural features.”

Meanwhile, Marvel Vision took on “Odyssey.” “The challenge we faced was how to correctly display images on the irregular surface of the 50-meter-long ‘cosmic thread,’” says Marvel Vision Owner Dacheng Xu. “Adding to the challenge was another extra requirement: This irregular surface needed to have a constant, wavelike motion. Using the powerful features of Christie Pandoras Box, coupled with our years of experience and knowledge operating these systems, we were able to overcome these challenges and deliver a highly satisfactory AV installation that all of us are proud of.”

As he recounts Marvel Vision’s resolution of their “Odyssey” odyssey, Xu attributes much of the credit to Christie technology. “The GS and HS Series projectors with laser illumination deliver excellent visuals, have a compact footprint, advanced electronics and connectivity, and a durable and dustproof design – making them ideal choices for installations such as theme parks, museums, exhibition halls, and theaters,” he says. “Meanwhile, Pandoras Box has an advanced system architecture design and unparalleled system configuration flexibility, capable of real-time video playback and processing, and other advanced technologies.”

A step forward for AV

In the world of museums, science centers have often been at the forefront when it comes to embracing AV innovation to tell their stories. The Shanghai Astronomy Museum continues the trend, putting AV at the heart of the action. Feature-rich, versatile projectors and powerful media playback and show control systems are the fundamental link between the SAM’s mind- expanding content and the visitors wanting to be amazed as they learn and explore.

“AV technologies help museums engage visitors in a profound and compelling manner,” says Qin. And as these technologies become ever more sophisticated, they provide new, immersive storytelling tools to media producers and designers to take exhibits to the next level. “We are now able to harness technology to reimagine exhibits, which can in turn generate interest and impart knowledge to visitors in new and exciting ways,” says Qin.

The Shanghai Astronomy Museum has helped engage the public by adopting technologies such as motion sensing, data visualization, augmented reality, virtual reality, and biometrics to create a multi-sensory experience of sight, sound and touch, Chen noted. “This has allowed the museum to build an immersive cosmic space environment, with interactive exhibits accounting for more than 50% of the total space, which combines education and recreation.”

A stellar venue

“The new Shanghai Astronomy Museum, which recently opened in China, is potentially the world’s most majestic museum devoted to the skies,” according to a review on ArchitecturalDigest.com.

Designed by the U.S. firm Ennead Architects, the SAM’s futuristic curved architecture and massive size go a long way to preparing visitors to be amazed. Its multilayered, curvilinear shape, without right angles or straight lines, have been likened to a deconstructed spaceship.

As the Thea Judging Committee described it, “From afar, its structure appears celestial and extraterrestrial, and one can only stand in awe of its otherness,” and “Each exhibit’s design fully capitalizes on the opportunities afforded by the museum’s architectural features.”

Innovative AV plays well in this futuristic setting. “SAM’s architectural space structure and exhibit structure design exude imagination and creativity,” says Xu. “In the face of these creative exhibit shapes and different exhibit functions, Christie’s projection systems and tools (Pandoras Box in particular) provide design teams, content creation teams, and exhibit production teams with the ability to transform their artistic blueprint into reality.”

Visitors like what they see and experience at the SAM and they’re talking about it online in forums such as WeChat and Weibo. “Many are amazed and highly impressed with these ‘high-tech’ exhibits, which increased their interest in science and provided them with a better understanding of the solar system and faraway galaxies,” says Xu. “The large number of social media posts is testament to their popularity.”

As Qin says, “The Shanghai Astronomy Museum marks a new milestone in the integration of science, nature and modern technology to provide an ‘out-of-the-world’ experience for astronomy fans and the general public.” • • •

James Careless
James Careless
James Careless is an award-winning freelance writer who has covered the amusement parks and attractions industry for many years.

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