HIVE’s BeeBlade and BeeBox products have helped to bring BBC Earth Experience Melbourne to life through seamless media playback. The immersive exhibition promises to transport visitors on a journey through the natural world, and is narrated by David Attenborough.
Following the popularity of the inaugural BBC Earth Experience in London, the attraction recently opened a second site at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Produced in collaboration with Moon Eye Productions, Live Nation and BBC Studios, the Experience consists of a multi-room digital art experience that guides visitors through Earth’s diverse ecosystems across seven continents. Visitors embark on a 360-degree audio-visual adventure, taking them deep into the heart of Earth’s most spectacular landscapes. The experience is played out across dynamic multi-angle screens, showcasing both new and existing footage from the ‘Seven Worlds, One Planet’ series.
The Melbourne exhibit is equipped with 70 Panasonic projectors, with 55 creating the main immersive space, 49 of which are powered by BeeBlade. The remaining six utilise HIVE’s BeeBox chassis, to power the remaining projectors that lack the SDM compatibility.
Launched earlier this year, BeeBlade is a compact media engine that seamlessly integrates with video projectors and display technology through Intel’s Smart Display Module (SDM) slot, thus eliminating the need for extensive cabling and extensive power consumption.
“We are introducing a new technological era into the industry with the BeeBlade series, and when TDC in Australia contacted HIVE for the BBC Earth Experience in Melbourne we could not have been any more excited,” said Mark Calvert, co-founder at HIVE. “The natural world, preserving it and the beautiful documentaries of David Attenborough have inspired the entire HIVE team for many years.”
What sets Melbourne’s BBC Earth Experience apart is the playback technology used for this installation. Leading Australian video technology and production supplier, TDC, harnessed an innovative and cost-effective HIVE media server solution to power the entire project.
“The BeeBlade and BeeBox don’t just represent technological advancements; they are harbingers of a new, greener, and more efficient era in digital art installations,” explained TDC’s managing director, Michael Hassett. “This transformative approach is not just a disruption in the media server space; it’s an evolutionary leap, saving time, money and the planet.”
Tony Molloy, European sales manager at Panasonic Business Europe, added: “In applications such as this, having a system where you can combine the projectors and media servers together in the same location saves enormous costs from an installation and commissioning perspective.”
