360° Projection / Arena 5, GTX 1080s, Datapath X4s

[Critter]

Hello Everyone,

I know this question comes up every now and then. I've looked at the previous posts and none of them answers all of my questions, so here goes. If you have any advice or suggestions, they'd be much appreciated.

I'm working on an installation for a museum.
I would like to project a few 5 minute long clips in 360° in a large round room, for 8 hours each day.
The room is eggshaped and its longer dimension is about as long as a schoolbus.
The museum is in a remote place (desert) and I don't think I can rely on the staff there to do any complex technical setups each morning.

I think I'll need to build a dedicated Windows machine with a GTX 1080, putting out 2 4k streams into 2 Datapath x4s.

Here are some questions I have:

Am I right in thinking I need a PC with a GTX 1080 and 2 Datapath x4s?
What could I add to this setup to do the warping and edge blending?
Are there projectors with inbuilt warp / edgeblending software?
Can anyone recommend any Full-HD projectors with reliable, uniform color and brightness across different units?
Are there any media servers that can be configured to just boot up and start playing?
Can Arena help me here?
Is there an easy way to configure a setup which only begins playing video once people enter the egg-shaped projection room?
How difficult is it to sync the output of the two 4k streams, or is this a dumb question / unnecessary?


Grateful for any input you might have...

[Empyfree]

How long is the installation in for? This strikes me as a "dedicated hardware" installation rather than a PC. But if it's only a short run you might get away with it.

[Critter]

It'd be indefinite. I'm a filmmaker and have done 360º installations before but outsourced the projection aspect in the past. What form could a 'dedicated hardware' installation take?

[Arvol]

At my previous job we did something similar for a museum. We only did 2 walls but the principal is still the same.
GTX1080 should be fine. Might need two and a few extra X4's/Tripple Heads.

We used mirrored projectors and hid the projectors above the drop ceiling (left an artistic gap between the wall and ceiling, having the gap go up 3 feet). Here's a thread on using those types of projectors: http://www.avsforum.com/forum/68-digita ... irror.html

It all depends on how much space your projectors take up on the wall. That determine the amount of hardware you need.

You can have windows autoboot without a login, you can even have Resolume be setup as a startup item, loading whatever cop you want.

In order for it to play from startup, you'll need to install and program a keystroke program (ie. have the program start on the login, then have it wait 3-5 min, then tell it to use whatever keystrokes you want. assign those keystrokes to the keyboard mapping within resolume)

I would highly recommend making your content a single file (for the entire resolution of the room) and doing a lot of fine tuning in your output slices and edge blending. This would ensure that all your screens are playing in sync, rather than multiple files for multiple projectors. after some time, they might get a few frames out of sync.

[Zoltán]

In order for it to play from startup, you'll need to install and program a keystroke program (ie. have the program start on the login, then have it wait 3-5 min, then tell it to use whatever keystrokes you want. assign those keystrokes to the keyboard mapping within resolume)

actually you can set layers to play first clip on composition load, and when the auto pilot is enabled you can have a self playing looping composition.

[Zoltán]

Is there an easy way to configure a setup which only begins playing video once people enter the egg-shaped projection room?

I think, you would need to build custom motion detection hardware, which either would send midi or OSC to resolume. With an arduino, or raspberry Pi , and a little programming skills this would be cheap to accomplish.
In the programming I would get feedback from resolume, checking if the clip has finished playing before re-triggering, because people will stop moving watching the installation, and then the motion sensor triggers again when they move you wouldn't want the media to start again.

[Joris]

In the programming I would get feedback from resolume, checking if the clip has finished playing before re-triggering

If you really want to do this all in Resolume, you could set the clips to "Pick-up" mode. This mode is meant to let the clip pick up its playhead position from the last time it was played. In this case, it will just continue playing if it receives subsequent triggers.

Personally, I would handle this logic in whatever software or programming environment you use to get the movement data in the first place. Resolume is not really designed for advanced scripting possibilities.

[paulc_s]

Hi,

I am the UK rep for Datapath and I'm always looking at installations and future projects that include our kit. The x4 & Fx4 is being used worldwide on exciting projects as well as our iolite.

Dinja would it be possible to get any pictures from you for your last X4 project? Any exposure for our 2 companies is going to be good pr. Can you share? paul.corsbie-smith@datapath.co.uk

Critta do you need pricing?

thanks

[Critter]

Hey Paul,

That would be great, yes.
I'm in South Africa but travel to the UK quite frequently

[paulc_s]

Hey Critter,

It would be great to see you in the UK but we also have some reps in your area. send me your details on email and will get Datapath SA to drop you a line. paul.corsbie-smith@datapath.co.uk send any pics of intsalls as well if you have any.