A SA creative team is to design a groundbreaking responsive media wall at the new Miami Science Museum.
Formula D Interactive and Digital Fabric have been appointed to design and build a groundbreaking, large-scale audiovisual installation for the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science in Miami, Florida.
Formula D have the creative lead and are responsible for all software and content with Digital Fabric delivering the design, engineering and integration aspects of the project.
The museum is set to open in 2015, and the team is busy designing an 18-metre interactive projection environment that will represent the Gulf Stream – a powerful, warm ocean current off the coast of Florida – and its impact on the marine world.
Visitors can influence the virtual environment in real time thanks to high resolution tracking cameras, making the experience akin to a scuba dive. The projection system will feature an auto-alignment system to maintain the complex warp and blending required for the curved, multi-projector setup. Brainsalt Media interactive servers will deliver all content via a fibre optic backbone, with dedicated machines for real-time rendering, tracking and multi-channel audio.
Digital Fabric recently built an 8-metre section of the wall in a venue in Cape Town, with a fully operational playout and tracking system for client approval. A team of three from the museum visited Cape Town to review the concept and approve key content decisions.
The team won the contract against stiff opposition from 20 interactive design firms, primarily based in the US.
“Formula D interactive has all the right ingredients in their proposal,” says Jennifer Santer, vice president for Content and Programs at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, and project manager for the interactive media wall project. “The creativity of their response, combined with their ability to include the right partners to achieve our objectives, made us certain we wanted to work with them.”
