Artistic projection at London King's Cross station to entertain commuters

The specialist ADi Audiovisual has combined a projector 10.000 Panasonic lumens with a dnp Supernova Infinity screen with a spectacular result.

The lobby of London King's Cross tube station, one of the busiest in the city and next to the Eurostar departure station, has been the scene of a unique artistic projection, denominada ‘Art on the underground’, which during the last month has surprised both travelers and the challenges of projecting in a complex environment such as the suburban.

For any audiovisual installation in this type of environment, the level of ambient light and atmospheric dust, as well as health and safety conditions, They are very important aspects, to which is added that currently more than 95 millions of people pass through King's Cross station each year.

A challenge for which Transport for London has had the advice of the specialist ADi Audiovisual for the installation of a new piece of visual art at one of London's busiest transport hubs, with the aim of entertaining and inspiring the millions of travelers who pass through the capital daily.

Niamh Sullivan, curator and director of the technical program, with more than ten years of experience in public art projects, has been responsible for the project 'Art on the underground' of Broomberg & Canary, that ADi Audiovisual has materialized.

As Mark Wayman points out, co-founder of this audiovisual integration company, “For this project we needed a projector that, in combination with an optical display, would produce an image with sufficient brightness and contrast for typical ambient light levels in an overhead-lit lobby. Audiovisual equipment had to, besides, tolerate the level and type of iron dust present at the station”.

ADi Audiovisual's solution has been a laser projector 10.000 lumens of Panasonic, specifically the PT-RZ970 model, along with a Supernova Infinity optical display of 5 meters wide from the Danish firm dnp, supplied and installed by Visual Displays Ltd. A combination whose result has been the production of high brightness and contrast images, low maintenance and has tolerated the dust environment, temperature, lightning, etc. present in the lobby of a subway station.

“Panasonic PT-RZ970 is a reliable projector that requires little maintenance, extremely important feature due to the difficult conditions of access to the device at the installation site - says Wayman -. The effect is simply amazing. “When we ordered this large screen we had no idea that the look would be so amazing.”.

Another advantage is that this projector, widely used in museums and education, offers easy installation thanks to the Digital Link function, supporting uncompressed Full HD video transmission and control commands over a single CAT 5e or higher STP cable for distances up to 150 m. Added to this is its dust-resistant structure., with a sealed optical block, as well as the dual-drive laser optical engine, ensuring uninterrupted operation with light source failover protection.

As far as the multimedia screen is concerned, Greg Jeffreys, director of VDL, explains that many demands had to be overcome. “The client wanted an impeccable screen, with a size of 5 metros; with high color quality for HD video, and that it was compatible with the demanding safety and fire regulations. The high quality of dnp Supernova optical display technology, in combination with Panasonic projector, fulfilled at all levels”.

Commuters passing through King's Cross station can see this screen in the main concourse, where the video titled 'The bureaucracy of angels' is projected, twelve minutes long, created by Broomberg & Canary. “I am very pleased that so many people can see what can be achieved with projection screens of this size”, Jeffreys assures.