Igloo Vision has revamped its London demo centre, squeezing a total of five different immersive spaces into its showroom in Hoxton. To launch the new centre, Igloo invited clients, partners and professionals from across the AV industry to explore how Igloo technology is used across the world for visualisation, simulation, collaboration and engagement.
Installation was in attendance, and we were impressed by what we saw, with the five spaces at Igloo London giving a sense of the range of immersive spaces Igloo builds, the flexibility of the Igloo software and how Igloo is leading the way in immersive spaces for enterprise.
Igloo takes its name from the projection-mapped geodesic domes which the company first started building in 2007. But today, its shared immersive spaces come in many shapes, sizes and degrees of sophistication – including cylinders, immersive rooms, bespoke presentation suites, and powerful CAVE-type solutions.
All these systems are capable of showing a diverse range of content. Igloo Core Engine (ICE), Igloo’s award-winning operating system for immersive spaces includes a range of industry standard integrations for viewing content such as BIM models, metaverse applications, 360° video, and game engine content. It also makes it easy to access any web-based content through applications like YouTube 360°, Google Street View and Igloo’s very own 360° web browser. And, because ICE is a layer-based system, users can configure this content any way they choose.
“The best way to understand what an Igloo can do is to see it for yourself,” explained managing director Kerry Head. “Our new demo centre showcases the versatility of our software and the range of systems will provide inspiration for clients and partners exploring the potential of shared immersive spaces.”
Igloo’s five immersive spaces:
Immersive Visualisation Room with floor projection
The floor projection in this 5×5-metre space really shows off the power of Igloo as a visualisation tool. On the open day, the Igloo team used it to display 360° video, Insta360 live streams, architectural models built in Unity, Matterport photogrammetry models, as well their own immersive presentation built using Slides.com.
The space is powered by six Epson EB-PU1007W projectors and Igloo’s own Immersive Media Player (IMP III) and includes a video conferencing system incorporating a Lenovo ThinkSmart Teams Room device, Sennheiser TeamConnect ceiling mic, Crystal Vox Loqui 1 speaker and Sony camera.
360° Cylinder
The wraparound 6-metre 360° Cylinder is an equally impressive immersive environment. Igloo used the space to display a showreel of content that has been designed specifically for Igloo spaces over the years. The team also demonstrated how the Connec2 XR collaboration platform can be used to bring external users wearing Oculus VR headsets into the immersive environment.
The 6-metre Cylinder includes six BenQ LK953ST projectors and an IMPIII media player.
XR Studio
Igloo’s very own XR Studio includes LED panels by LED Studio, studio lighting, and an HTC Vive tracking system. It’s been designed in partnership with LED Studio with the aim of making XR production available and affordable for organisations who regularly broadcast content and do in-house photoshoots. The tracking system shows off Igloo’s True Perspective feature, which adjusts the perspective of any content in real time depending on head or camera position.
The Igloo team also used the space to demonstrate an integration with generative AI platform Blockade Labs. This can be used to create immersive experiences and vistas from a single prompt and, at the open day, guests were invited to take pictures and video of their own immersive creations.
Immersive Workspace
This room is all about collaboration. Set up like a traditional meeting room, Igloo’s ICE software makes it easy for teams to surround themselves with data and content on all four walls. The Igloo team had an MS Teams call running on one wall and used the rest of the room-scale display to show Office applications, PowerPoint, Power BI, Miro, Alleo and a range of other immersive content.
The 4×4-metre meeting room includes a table, Neat Bar Teams room device, four LG Cinebeam HU8LG 4k projectors, and is powered by an IMPII media player.
VR CAVE
The Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) uses three Digital Projection E-Vision 5100 projectors capable of 3D projection and an OptiTrack motion tracking system.
The 3D projection is ideal for visualising digital models where depth is important, such as architectural visualisations. It’s equally impressive when applied to experiential content, such as a 3D visualisation in the style of Vincent Van Gogh.
Igloo opened its doors to over 50 guests at the London Open Day last month, and plans to welcome many more clients to the new showroom.
