- World-class technology converges with world-class facilities at the Stephen Hawking Centre at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ont., Canada, where 84 Christie® MicroTiles® are visually communicating a range of scientific research, training and outreach messages for a variety of audiences – including some of the world’s brightest minds. Located in the lobby, itself a mix of angles and multiple perspectives, the Christie MicroTiles array is assembled as an irregular hexagon, creating a dynamic media wall to welcome and inform all visitors.
“The video wall’s shape is arranged in a ‘V’ with a narrow base of three MicroTiles wide and works its way up to eight wide at the top of the array,” said Randy Pagnan, President, RP Visual Solutions (RPV). “Any MicroTiles array greater than five tiles high benefit greatly from a consolidated back frame, which is what RPV constructed; our adjustability and capability to align each MicroTile guarantees the tight seams of the video wall. MicroTiles allow the flexibility to provide that ‘architectural’ look Perimeter was seeking to achieve.”
The scale, diversity, and modular design of Christie MicroTiles allow a building’s design and the organization occupying it to ‘speak’ with the Christie MicroTiles as the creative medium.
“The wall’s design is a fusion of messaging, mission and architecture – and it all came together because of the Christie MicroTiles technology,” said John Matlock, Director of External Relations and Public Affairs at Perimeter Institute. “The flexibility of MicroTiles allowed for the whole space to come together in a very exciting way. The unique shape of the media wall – including a functioning passageway – is in line with the architect’s vision of the main entrance to Perimeter Institute.”
Matlock explained that Perimeter’s small in-house graphics and audiovisual team needed a visual display technology that would enable them to manipulate and update zones, backgrounds and the overall display with ease. With the use of vibrant color, the MicroTiles’ digital canvas enables the Institute’s graphic artist to create, import, and display high-resolution and highly detailed scientific animations to help share abstract concepts in theoretical physics. In addition, the MicroTiles display will share daily news about the many research, training and outreach activities taking place throughout the facility.
“In the past we had plasma displays to impart basic information – times, dates, names. However, in expanding the research center, the Christie MicroTiles’ high-resolution capabilities, color and clarity really took us to that next level where we could bring information to life in all new ways, including the display of highly detailed scientific images and computer-generated animations,” Matlock continued.
“Many different communities – researchers, trainees, students, teachers, members of the public and even our many stakeholders – pass by and speak in overwhelmingly positive tones about the media wall. The Christie MicroTiles provide a ‘wow’ factor when we share information about Perimeter’s purposes and other messaging. I think we are in an ideal position with Christie MicroTiles to keep the communications as fresh, impactful and awe-inspiring as the Stephen Hawking Centre itself.”
“Christie MicroTiles allow for the creativity of architects to realize their vision and do things they couldn’t do only a few years ago,” Pagnan concluded.
