AV Stumpfl Pixera supports Belgium's first immersive AV attraction

Studio 100 Story Studio is an innovative projection experience, with up to six shows in parallel, running from a single Pixera server AV Stumpfl.

Belgian specialists Studio 100 and CityCubes have joined forces to create a new and innovative immersive experience: Studio 100 Story Studio (STST) which uses a combination of spectacular life-size projections and an audio story (told through headphones), to immerse the public in each adventure.

This space, located in the Meir of Antwerp, has become the first immersive audiovisual attraction of its kind available in Belgium.

One of the main stories that comes to life in Studio 100 Story Studio takes place aboard an archaeology ship that tries to discover the mythical city of Atlantis. During the so-called experience Atlantis, visitors are guided through different eras, places and dimensions to the supposed location of the same.

Each of the six Studio rooms 100 Story Studio houses a part of the story and, as visitors move forward, more pieces of the puzzle are revealed.

Interactive attraction

An additional story focuses on the world of The Mayan bee, originally a classic children's book that became an international phenomenon in the form of an acclaimed animated series. The plot thread of Maya is even more interactive than that of Atlantis, as visitors of all ages are asked to dance, fly and shake like the famous bee.

The general narrative follows Maya, looking for a hive party of great importance. Visitors can help the adventurous bee during their journeys through a number of different immersive worlds..

For this complex attraction, a total of 52 Projectors Panasonic to provide immersive visuals; all of them were controlled and managed simultaneously by the servers and the software Pixera of AV Stumpfl (one master and five rendering engines).

The show starts every fifteen minutes and lasts about an hour, which means that up to six shows are running in parallel from the single master Pixera.

Multidisciplinary project

In addition, a server Pixera RAW takes care of all soil projections (fifteen outputs divided by Datapath FX4 and routed through a modular array switch IDK FDX-32. The wall projections that are made in each room have their dedicated Pixera server, playing uncompressed 12K-wide backup content per server.

Portable wireless headphones, perfectly synchronized by timecode, are also controlled by the same Pixera master server. Additional audio outputs play announcements and effects in some of the rooms.

As he explains Dieter Veulemans, CityCubes creative partner, “what we created here in Belgium was a technological project 'never seen before'’ for which we put all our trust in our partners and in Pixera. It is essential that our shows remain on the billboard for several hours a day and several months, and that we feel safe with all the AV equipment that is used”.

The programming of the Pixera system has been taken care of Sander de Schrijver, while all the technical team has supplied it AED Display. The visual content is the work of the specialist Prismax, that has formatted it as uncompressed TIFF streams.

Other companies that have also participated in the realization of this ambitious project are The Production Box and Flex Solutions. Those responsible for the installation have stated that in the future other stories and experiences will be added to attract audiences of all ages..

Anja Van Mensel, Managing Director of Studio 100, stresses that “Studio 100 Story Studio is a beautiful addition to our current activities and represents a new step for Studio 100. It's a new form of entertainment we fully trust.. Together with our partner CityCubes, we are making a mark when it comes to offering quality relaxation for the whole family”.

Other articles on AED Distribution, AV Stumpfl, CityCubes, DataPath, Flex Solutions, IDK, Panasonic, Prismax, Sander de Schrijver, Studio 100, Studio 100 Story Studio, The Production Box