ST Engineering Antycip (Antycip), a provider of simulation and virtual training solutions, has installed four Barco UDM 4K laser projectors as part of a major upgrade to the immersive room at University College London’s (UCL) Immersive Virtual Environments Laboratory. The installation is designed to enhance image quality, brightness, and system reliability.
Originally commissioned in 2000 as the UK’s first dedicated VR research facility, the lab has continually evolved, transitioning from CRT projectors and SGI image generators to lamp-based systems. The latest upgrade replaces projectors installed in 2012, offering a significant boost in contrast, colour richness, and 4K resolution per channel.
Additional improvements include new RF-synchronised stereoscopic eyewear and fibre-optic cabling, which the company says further improve system usability and reliability, reducing maintenance demands and eliminating the need for consumables.
Dr David Swapp, senior research fellow and lecturer in immersive technologies at UCL, said: “Our previous projection system had served us well for over a decade, but spare parts were becoming impossible to find, and performance had started to lag behind what is needed for cutting-edge research.
“With the new setup, we get superior contrast, resolution and system reliability – all essential to pushing the boundaries of immersive VR. Primarily, we are interested in what makes virtual reality work; what it is that makes people go into the immersive room and not believe it is real, but still act and behave as if it is real. That is the question we continue to explore, and this upgrade helps us do it better.”
The VR Lab has hosted studies on foveated rendering (a technique that uses eye-tracking to render high detail only where the user is looking), avatar interaction, AI-driven behaviour and multi-sensory simulation. While UCL’s researchers use head-mounted displays extensively, projection-based systems remain preferred for certain applications, providing a level of immersion and interactivity that headsets alone cannot achieve, Antycip says.
John Mould, commercial development manager at Antycip, added: “We are proud to have supported UCL with this upgrade. It ensures one of the UK’s most iconic immersive facilities continues to evolve. Seeing the leap in image quality compared to its CRT origins really underlines how far this technology has come, and how much further it can go.”
