Located in Dubai, UAE, Infinity des Lumières – the biggest digital art venue in the GCC region, situated within the Dubai Mall – is designed to bring to life artworks of the most iconic painters and contemporary artists as part of an immersive, multi-sensory art experience. A total of 130x Barco G60-W10 projectors, 43x Nexo ID24T and 15x ID S110 subwoofers and 40 x Modulo Kinetic media servers were deployed to bring the artwork to life via 3,000 HD digital moving images.
DOWNTOWN DUBAI
The fruit of a collaboration between InfinityArt, and Culturespaces Digital, leading creator of digital art centers – including the renowned Atelier des Lumières in Paris – Infinity des Lumières is located in the iconic Dubai Mall in downtown Dubai. Spread across an area of 2,700 sqm, visitors can submerge themselves in Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, Dreamed Japan The Images Of The Floating World, a joint collaboration by Lucia Frigola, Cédric Péri, Sergio Carrubba and Paola Ciucci, and an exclusive digital creation, Verse by Thomas Vanz.
All of the artwork is projected onto both walls and floor on a 3,300 sqm projection area powered by 130 x Barco projectors, and 39 x Modulo Kinetic media servers by Modulo Pi. In addition there are 3 x Modulo Kinetic Designer workstations, and 36 x Modulo Kinetic V-Node servers.
WARP SPEED
Project management and AV integration was managed by Cadmos, and whilst the company is familiar with Modulo Kinetic, having utilised the system for other installations, the system was new to Steve Critchley, head of audio visual at Infinity des Lumières – also a laser designer and programmer and formally assistant head of lighting and vIdeo at the La Perle by Dragone show.
“I’ve worked with rock solid hardware and software media servers for 10 to 15 years, but I never worked with Modulo Kinetic before,” he explains.
“At first, it worried me, but then I started playing with it and I loved it.”
As a fully integrated media server solution, Modulo Kinetic
is used across the complete workflow, including study, simulation, edge blending and warping, plus show control. Critchley relied on Modulo Kinetic to deliver a seamless projection across the 240+ million pixels canvas, with warping tools, 3D calibration and the X-Map – an exclusive 2D mapping function available in Modulo Pi media servers – doing the business – although maintaining a seamless projection was quite a challenge in this particular venue.
“The building moves a lot because we are in a mall,” explains Critchley. “It causes a huge amount of movements. It is also due to the heat difference between the inside and the outside, as well as during the day and the night.”
LIVE CORNERSTONES
To optimise the warping process, several technicians were able to work simultaneously with the Modulo Kinetic Warp Remote application to handle geometry from their laptops, while being close to the projection areas.
Besides video, Modulo Kinetic handles 23 x audio channels through a Dante soundcard, playing the soundtrack of each
of the three exhibitions. Show control is also performed through Modulo Kinetic, allowing control of the projectors,
as well as 52x architectural lighting systems, and 27 x service lights.
“With very little training experience with Modulo Kinetic, we’ve been able to pick it up, run with it, and produce our own show control,” says Critchley. “Show control is one of my favourite things. The UI is just brilliant.” On this project, Modulo Kinetic communicates with external devices through a variety of protocols including OSC, UDP, TCP or Art-Net.
Using the media server’s UI Designer, the AV team were able to easily create custom show control panels to launch a variety of tasks from any device. “I have a custom UI on my phone, so when I am doing site visits, I can jump around wherever I need to, I can launch or stop elements of the show,” comments Critchley.
After Cadmos completed the integration, the on-site AV system and daily operations are handled by a team of local technicians headed by Critchley. “I’m already very comfortable with it, and most of the team are, even junior techs,” he notes. “Modulo Kinetic is a very powerful solution, and again, very easy to use.”
DIGITAL FACADE
In addition to the InfinityArt, and Culturespaces Digital collaboration, Infinity des Lumières is also home to the
largest digital facade in The Dubai Mall: a magnificent art projection with a total display area of 200 sqm and 379 LED screens, where mall-goers will be captivated with living dynamic art.
Powered by 1 x Modulo Kinetic Designer workstation and
3 x Modulo Kinetic V-Node servers, equipped with 4 x 4K outputs, the 40 x 5 meter display has been created to feature the custom creations of studios from around the world.
