Optoma helps the Leonardo create the best immersive experiences in Salt Lake City

CHALLENGE:

The Leonardo museum wanted to provide a fully immersive experience for their visitors, but the viewing areas have very low ceilings that made it difficult to install projection equipment.

The Leonardo’s mission is to fuse science, technology, and art in experiences that inspire creativity and innovation in people of all ages and backgrounds. They were looking to create a semi-permanent digital gallery, but the configuration of the event space was a concern. They turned to Florian Ahrens the technical director for Universal Exhibition Group (UEG) and Optoma projectors to help create multiple immersive experiences. UEG focuses on a unique portfolio of touring exhibitions designed for museums, galleries, shopping malls and other unique venues. UEG also provides simple and cost-effective solutions for installation and de-installation, storage and transportation and can provide technicians and designers for each project. The Leonardo decided they wanted to display five immersive experiences, including Van Gogh 360°, From Monet to Kandinsky, and the Italian Renaissance. Ahrens said, “The space they have is about 10,000 square feet, and the ceilings are quite low making it challenging to provide large images, but we liked the place and the people and we decided to see how we could make it work.”

SOLUTION:

Universal Exhibition Group’s technicians and designers created a unique projection configuration using 40 Optoma laser projectors and mirrors to bring their designs to life.

To make it work UEG chose ZH406ST Optoma short throw laser projectors to provide the high brightness and consistent color performance they needed. They divided up the space into an anteroom where visitors can get information about the artists being displayed and one large immersive gallery. The gallery area had low walls of various sizes ranging from 8.5 to 12 feet in height. One advantage of the Optoma projectors is that they are very lightweight and they were able to be mounted directly to the drywall ceilings without using extra supports or mounting brackets that would have taken away more height. They were also able to project directly onto the walls and floors using projection paint instead of building frames and installing screens. They incorporated mirrors and used them to reflect some of the projected surfaces onto the corridors and other spaces. The Optoma ZH406ST high brightness short throw laser projector is designed for maintenance-free, continuous operation and it can be installed in virtually any orientation. Because of the Optoma projector’s high quality short throw lenses they had no problem reaching all the surfaces and getting the right distances to the screens and filling them properly with spectacular images.

RESULTS:

The Leonardo museum is extremely happy with the way the exhibitions are produced in their facility. It is a place where visitors can freely wander and wonder at the amazing content and displays and they have received great positive feedback from families visiting the museum.

The Leonardo museum now has a completely custom built system incorporating Optoma laser projectors that is easy to use. They just turn it on every day and it works perfectly and projects an awesome experience for their visitors. They are currently exhibiting five immersive exhibitions, including Vann Gogh 360°, From Monet to Kandinsky, and Italian Renaissance. According to the Leonardo, they now have the best immersive experiences in Salt Lake City and the museum is receiving excellent reviews! Feedback from their visitors is that they are amazed at the colors and the image quality. The team was impressed that the Optoma projectors could provide such a strong output and color performance with their compact size and low price. The ZH406ST is a low maintenance projector with extremely long-life laser technology. UEG has worked with the ZH406ST Optoma projector on other occasions and they were confident that its laser performance, as well as its 4K and HDR compatibility would produce exceptional images and make the exhibitions a huge success. “We were very happy with the Optoma projector’s color and brightness, and how easy it was mapping and merging the images onto the walls and displaying the content.” said Ahrens.