Newcastle Science Central Decision Theatre

The installation was carried out under the Project Management of Universal AV, the following rooms/scenarios were installed:

Decision Theatre Requirements

The decision theatre would be based around a large display (around 5m x 2m) – Supplied by BARCO and installed, with various supplementary technologies depending on use-case.  Following a consultation process with potential users, various use-cases for a potential Decision Theatre were produced.

Boardroom
The room would double as a technologically enhanced meeting space. The technology provides a large shared display where participants can share documents and data relevant to the meeting. It is required that participants can interface with the Decision Theatre from their own devices, hence Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) support is essential. The ability for the chair to control the meeting was also required (i.e. overrule BYOD functionality if required). It would also be useful to include stereo-vision capabilities for 3d data.

Lecture/Seminar Space
The Decision Theatre was to have the capability as an enhanced lecture / seminar facility. This would require a control console for the presenter, and again would benefit from stereo-vision for showing 3d presentations. Including video conferencing facilities and video streaming would add the capability of using the decision theatre as a remote facility for multi-cast events (e.g. remote lectures)

Interactive Space
The decision theatre would be used as an interactive space for the closer examination of data, and for performing interactive research. In order to achieve the desired effect a rear projection rig was built to house 2 x Single Chip DLP™ Professional use projectors, using 2 x specialist mirrors to project on to a Barco semi-rigid rear projection surface to offer a 5100mm x 1.875mm image size, supporting edge-blended arrays. Solstice software from Mersive was employed to enable multiple users to connect simultaneously to a shared display using a range of BYOD devices over a WiFi or Ethernet network. With a Solstice-enabled display in the room, any number of users can instantly connect, share and control the display, fostering collaboration and decision-making.

This AV system would maximize the flexibility of the room, allowing it to be used for the three different scenarios. A TeamMate lectern with a control console was used as a central hub to control the operation of the system, providing a simple and easy to operate interface for all levels of users.

The solution enables a large display with no shadow impact. It can be used to support business meetings and presentations with collaboration capabilities and also with full VR tracking and stereoscopic projection modes.

“The project was extremely complex. The client knew what they wanted and how they wanted it to work. The Universal AV project manager worked closely with the customer and Antycip Simulation to ensure that the project was delivered on time, with the tight timescales and deadlines set, as well as providing the functionality and growth options requested. We are extremely proud of the installation and work carried out at Science Central, knowing we are helping shape the way in which data is analysed and used is very satisfying”, comments Mark Atkinson, Universal AV Branch Manager, Newcastle.