Calgary’s New Science Centre Sparks Up 48-Unit MicroTiles Wall

January 12, 2012 by Dave Haynes

When my kids were a lot younger and we still lived out west, we’d take them now and then to Calgary’s old concrete number of a science centre west of downtown. Spent many hours there. So I was intrigued to see the oil-rich city now has a shiny new centre, complete with  shiny new video wall made of Christie’s MicroTiles.

The atrium of the new TELUS Spark Science Centre has a 48 tile wall between the Feature Gallery and the gift store.

“The Atrium is where we have a space for discovery leaders and hosts to deliver presentations and for informing people about what is happening at the center,” said Dennis Cheng, audio video manager, TELUS Spark. “There is a very large picture window on the south side of the atrium that lets in a lot of sunlight. In fact, it lights up the entire atrium. We needed a technology to overcome that issue and the Christie MicroTiles came in as the solution. The MicroTiles are LED-based and were the only product bright enough to overcome that large amount of ambient light.”

A second wall, comprising 22 Christie MicroTiles, slated for installation this year, will act as a donor wall to recognize large-scale donations. The centre also uses a pile of Christie’s high-end projectors.

For the ex-Calgary crowd, the new centre is where one of the overflow parking lots for the zoo was located, off the Deerfoot Trail and looking across at the Calgary Herald building (my old haunt).

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CHRISTIE PROVIDES TELUS SPARK, THE NEW SCIENCE CENTRE, WITH COMPLETE VISUAL SOLUTION

Christie MicroTiles Look Terrific in High Ambient Light Atrium

KITCHENER, Ont. – (January 12, 2012) – TELUS Spark, The New Science Centre is welcoming visitors with the help of 48 Christie® MicroTiles® and an assortment of Christie® projectors. The center opened October 29, 2011 inCalgary,Alberta for people of all ages and abilities to explore and discover science, technology and art in new ways.

The two story tall atrium houses an 8 unit wide by 6 unit high Christie MicroTiles array set between the Feature Gallery and the gift store.

Christie MicroTiles are modular digital display tiles that can be stacked and clustered like building blocks to create display walls of any shape or scale. They are also “self-aware” – meaning that the sensors built into the MicroTiles automatically complete time-consuming and costly color calibration needed to keep conventional video walls looking uniform.

“The Atrium is where we have a space for discovery leaders and hosts to deliver presentations and for informing people about what is happening at the center,” said Dennis Cheng, audio video manager, TELUS Spark. “There is a very large picture window on the south side of the atrium that lets in a lot of sunlight. In fact, it lights up the entire atrium. We needed a technology to overcome that issue and the Christie MicroTiles came in as the solution. The MicroTiles are LED-based and were the only product bright enough to overcome that large amount of ambient light.”

“Looking down from the second floor of the atrium, the MicroTiles display still looks great,” added Barry Crean, vice president, Operations. “People look down at the display from any angle and are quite impressed by what they see. The MicroTiles look terrific.”

A second wall, comprising 22 Christie MicroTiles, slated for installation this year, will act as a donor wall to recognize large-scale donations.

Ten Christie Projectors Complete the Solution

Cheng explained that as a new building, TELUS Spark is poised to attract a wide variety of special events and the Atrium is the perfect place to stage these opportunities.

“Again, because of the ambient light on the south end of the atrium, we needed a projector to overcome the light challenges. The Christie Roadie HD+35K was the best option,” said Cheng. “The Roadie projects 100 feet away onto a 30-foot by 16-foot screen that is suspended from a movable truss over 30 feet above the atrium floor.”

The center also has seven Christie DWU670-E 1-chip DLP® projectors with four dedicated to the Open Studio gallery. Catering to youth, the Open Studio allows participants to digitally paint with light or compose a symphony with color. The finished artwork or composition is then projected onto one of four screens.

Of the remaining three projectors, one is in the Being Human gallery and the other two are on mobile carts, used throughout the science center.

Christie DWU670-E 1-chip DLP® projectors provide exceptional brightness (6000 ANSI lumens / 6500 center lumens) and image quality with native WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution.

“We really like the look and performance of these single-chip projectors,” added Cheng. “They work exceptionally well and were the ideal wide-screen choice for our needs.”

A Christie DS+750 1-chip DLP® projector is used at the Shadow Rock exhibit in the Open Studio gallery. Offering an exceptional balance between high brightness and superior color and reliability for 24/7 applications, the Christie DS+750 digital projector delivers 7500 ANSI lumens at SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) resolution.

“The final Christie projector we have is the Christie CP2220, located in our 164-seat Presentation Theatre,” Crean continued. “We wanted a quality space where we could do flat image 3D and the Christie CP2220 is exactly what we needed.”

Designed for ease of use and maximum reliability with the majority of screens in commercial exhibitions, the Christie CP2220 digital cinema projector is an all-in-one digital cinema projector solution and the brightest, highest performance projector with the lowest operating costs in its class.

“We had a walkthrough with some technology experts and they recognized that by choosing Christie projectors, we had chosen high quality and cutting edge technology. Once we decided on Christie, everything – including delivery of the products – happened very quickly,” Crean concluded.

“We worked closely with Geoff Chick (Central and Western Regional Sales Manager,Canada) and Dave Muscat (Senior Director of Sales,Canada) – who were very responsive throughout the process. Having great products means we have the potential to achieve great things with our exhibits.”

About Christie®

Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc. is a global visual technologies company and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ushio, Inc., Japan, (JP:6925). Consistently setting the standards by being the first to market some of the world’s most advanced projectors and complete system displays, Christie is recognized as one of the most innovative visual technology companies in the world.  From retail displays to Hollywood, mission critical command centers to classrooms and training simulators, Christie display solutions and projectors capture the attention of audiences around the world with dynamic and stunning images.  Visit www.christiedigital.com.[/expand]