Mexico. Eight Christie Mirage 304K projectors have been installed in the new Materia Museum of the Sinaloa Science Center to give life to Cubo Negro 8K, an immersive and interactive space unique in the American continent where 8K visual experiences of scientific, artistic and technological content are offered.
Cubo Negro 8K is a replica of Deep Space 8K, an installation of the Ars Electronica center in Austria, where this project originates. It is one of the icons of this new science museum that is defined as a museological laboratory to build the future.
In Cubo Negro 8K, unpublished images of past and present worlds, nearby objects and elements of stellar space are projected, combining artistic genres, scientific fields and technological applications. "The Cube allows an interactive experience within an immersive space," explained Luis León, general director of the Sinaloa Science Center. "It also proposes a node for the discussion of technological development, the use of the image and the concepts of transmedia culture."
The installation has been a collaboration between Ars Electronica (as creator of the concept of space and owner of the license), Planetariums Digitales (a Mexican technological integrator whose expertise resides mainly in planetariums), the Sinaloa Science Center and the Government of the State of Sinaloa.
"As this is the first replica of Deep Space 8K outside Austria, it was a very laborious and very managed work, starting with the different styles of work, through communication between all those involved and even the implementation on site of an unprecedented project in America. Also highlight the political will of Sinaloa Governor Quirino Ordaz to make this project a reality," León said. Together, over the course of more than a year, they worked with Christie's team on infrastructure, installation, software and training to make this experience a reality.
Cubo Negro 8K is an interactive experiential space with 8K projection on the floor and wall through eight Christie Mirage 304K projectors (120Hz, 3DLP technology, 4K resolution, 30,000 lumens), which allows to obtain images in 2D and 3D stereo of extraordinary quality. Four of them combine to project a single image on a wall 13 meters long by 7 meters high, while the other four project a single image of the same dimension on the floor.
In total, the eight projectors provide 70,778,880 pixels, giving a resolution of more than 8,192 x 8,620 pixels on both floor and wall. The Christie Mirage, which receive video signals by both fiber optics and HDBaseT, are powered by high-performance servers specially designed for this purpose by Ars Electronica. The contents are interactive and the installation includes laser sensors to achieve this effect. In addition, the audience can interactively explore gigapixel images.
And, in contrast to a conventional projection, in Black Cube 8K people are not sitting in the dark observing only the screen, but are within the same projection and even in certain cases can walk and discover for themselves.
Enrique Fonte, director of Digital Planetariums, pointed out that "Ars Electronica's hardware and software system, unique in its kind worldwide, required a projection system of the highest quality. And the Christie Mirage projectors installed provide an extraordinary performance for the quality of their image and for the robustness of their construction. Ready to provide a 24/7 service in the face of the great demand for use, they are highly reliable and their image incomparable. Once again they have shown why they are preferred in the world market for this type of installations in museums, science centers, planetariums and entertainment centers."
Digital Planetariums, in addition to supplying the eight projectors plus Christie's proprietary hardware and software, also provided the 5.1 surround sound system that provides audio from three different sources routed with a digital mixer, including microphones for presentations. It also supplied the acoustic treatment system, as well as four mirrors to project towards the floor of the Black Cube, plus almost two kilometers of wiring and a large number of parts and accessories.
Luis León concluded: "The 8K Black Cube experience can only be found in Austria and in our Materia museum in Culiacán, Sinaloa. There is no space in the world that has the infrastructure, nor does it project 8K content in an immersive, 2D, 3D, interactive and gigapixel sense as Cubo Negro 8K offers".
