When Virtalis won the contract to create three Virtual Reality (VR) systems within the University of Northampton’s new £11m NVision Centre, they knew that this landmark facility — the largest project the company had ever undertaken — would require a state-of-the art technical infrastructure.
In order to maximise the potential within the University’s core market — largely SMEs in the engineering and architectural sectors — they designed an environment around three Virtalis ActiveWorks systems. This combined the UK’s first five-sided ActiveCube, two fully tracked ActiveWalls and a 512 Core High Performance Computational (HPC) Cluster, boosted by Virtalis proprietary visualisation software, and all set inside the Grade II-listed Newton Building at its Kingsley Park site.
In specifying the equipment, Virtalis was also able to place the first order for the new Christie Mirage WU7K-M 3D active stereo projectors in Europe, with five of the devices addressing each of the ActiveCube’s five surfaces.
Meanwhile, a further four Christie Mirage HD12 active stereoscopic projectors interact with the larger ActiveWall, with which the ActiveCube is interlaced. Elsewhere, another WU7, fitted with a 0.67:1 wide angle lens, operates in the University Development Suite ActiveWall in a fully immersive, wireless tracking environment behind a 2.15m tall x 3.4m wide display. This Development Suite was fitted first and enabled technicians to familiarise themselves with the technology in advance of the larger ActiveWall and the ActiveCube’s completion.
Virtalis knew this package, incorporating Christie projection, would give the University advanced visualisation capabilities, all underpinned by high performance computing.
The ultra-high resolution Virtalis ActiveCube is designed to provide the ultimate immersive experience. For bigger groups, the 6m x 3m tracked ActiveWall in the Newton Building’s main hall, powered by Virtalis immersive display software, generates an inspiring 3D stereo experience for up to 75 people at a time for group design and project reviews, teaching sessions and product launches. The smaller ActiveWall is tucked away in the basement and is intended for sensitive research, product design, marketing and small scale customer presentations.
Major users of Christie stereoscopic solutions over the years, Virtalis have always been comfortable with the Mirage platform. But the arrival of the new WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution devices raised the bar much higher.
“The Mirage is a platform we know and trust — and for immersive systems the WU7K-M is perfect — it’s an incremental improvement,” said Andrew Connell, Virtalis Technology Director. “When you want to stand in front of an image and interact with your own body, the WU7 delivers a full-length, floor-to-ceiling image without the width. For single-channel systems we foresee a lot of people going for this option, just to achieve that extra height.”
The Christie Mirage WU7K-M also enables a new level of compatibility with computers and infrastructure that supports active stereo, up to 120Hz output, due to unique image processing technology from up to 60Hz input, without requiring super bandwidth DVI or Analogue infrastructure.
Since a lot of content is still not designed for wide-screen, Virtalis was particularly impressed that WUXGA conforms to a resolution of 1920 x1200 pixels with an aspect ratio of 16:10 — allowing it to integrate perfectly with computer laptops.
With an increased field of view and a more optimal aspect ratio for greater choice and installation flexibility, the Christie Mirage WU7K-M offers 6,300 ANSI lumens, the highest contrast, excellent colour, brightness uniformity control capability, low maintenance, a full suite of specifically-designed lenses and embedded Twist™ module.
The new NVision will enable the University to create a unique centre to provide companies in the East Midlands with 3D immersive visualisation facilities to support the design of new products and to visualise data. In fact, so much interest is being shown in the Virtalis technology at the NVision Centre that the University is continuing to host regular open days themed around different market sectors for businesses from Northamptonshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.
SME’s that use the facilities have the added flexibility of being able to set up base at the Newton Building by letting office space on a short or medium term basis.
Said NVision manager, Stuart Wayne, “With reductions in public funding and a general need in the economy to offer similar outcomes with fewer resources, businesses will have to think creatively about how they can achieve this. VR is one tool that can save money and I see great opportunities for NVision to deliver value in this area. “During the next five years, we expect to bring the power of VR to over 500 small and medium businesses in the East Midlands.”
Grants for the development were secured, on a matched basis, from the East Midlands Development Agency and the European Regional Development Fund, with further financial support from Northamptonshire Enterprise Ltd.