The museum’s latest exhibition, ‘Wunder der natur’ celebrates the variety of natural life by showcasing the very best of international nature and wildlife photography. The exhibition has proved such a success, it has been extended for another year to the end of 2017.
Using satellites positioned 36,000km above the Earth’s atmosphere, timelapsed images show the impressive view changing from day to night, through the seasons. Visitors can also the see the formation of ice at the North Pole in winter, along with cloud and air movements.
12 laser projectors blanket the sphere with 27,648,000 projection-mapped pixels. A glass lift to the gasometer’s roof provides an impressive panoramic view of the Earth, faithfully recreated using projection technology.
The DLR created the video sequences for each projector with use of a virtual camera rig, supplied by Intermediate Engineering. The cameras were pointed at the globe in a virtual gasometer, setting out the positions of each projector and ensuring the projection was aligned exactly in the final setup. It took 90 days in total to fully render the content.
The largely steel construction of the gasometer provided a challenging internal environment, with humidity as high as 95% and temperatures up to 44°c. Intermediate Engineering’s remote control server monitored conditions to ensure continued uptime, but with technical support located five hours away, the company needed a product and support package they could rely on.
“Any company can have issues with products, but it is how you deal with the problems when they arise. They must be solved and they must be solved quickly”, said Heiko Wandrey, founder and managing director at Intermediate Engineering.
“During the winter we experienced very low temperatures which was causing occasional projector startup problems. Panasonic dealt with this by supplying replacement units which had been upgraded to satisfy our requirements for low temperature startup and we’re very happy with the results,” said Heiko Wandrey.
The projection needed to be as faithful to nature as possible – “The colour reproduction must be second to none, warping must be fine, high brightness, mapping must be great. As the centrepiece of the exhibition, the bar was high,” said Heiko Wandrey.
With a maintenance-free run time of 20,000 hours thanks to Panasonic’s SOLID SHINE laser technology, the PT-RZ670 was up to the task. 6,500 lumens provide an impressive brightness level and the 360-degree flexible mounting options allowed such an unusual and eye-catching centrepiece to be pulled off.
The airtight, hermetically sealed case also ensures high picture quality even within the dusty, high traffic environment of the museum. Five selectable modes also ensure the best combination between brightness and fit-and-forget longevity, allowing up to 87,600 hours of maintenance-free operation on the most efficient, long-life mode.