BrightSign and Dubai-based system integrator DigiComm met this challenge with the completion of the new Shark Week exhibit at Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo.
Using nearly 91 screens driven by 42 BrightSign players, DigiComm combined digital technology with a living aquarium to create for visitors the experience of swimming among Great White Sharks and other large fish without the actual fish being present. The experience was created by Emaar Entertainment, the leisure and entertainment subsidiary of Emaar Properties, and Discovery Consumer Products, in association with OSN, the region's leading pay-TV network.
Paul Hamilton, general manager and curator of Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, said, "At Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, we're passionate about educating the public on these incredible and often misunderstood creatures. The Discovery Channel Shark Week exhibit invites visitors into the incredible world of sharks in a truly innovative way that both educates and entertains. The new exhibition is a key facet of our commitment to shark conservation along with our other initiatives such as the shark artificial insemination programme that we inaugurated in 2015."
At the front of the exhibit, 28 massive 55" LG screens driven by seven BrightSign 4K players with tiled outputs featuring an awe-inspiring scene of great white sharks circling a cage of divers. There are also three LG 86" stretch 4K displays with a resolution of 3840 x 600 pixels on entry and exit. Entering the exhibit, visitors walk straight into the world's first interactive digital shark cage with Great Whites swimming around them.
"The visitor becomes the diver - they experience the excitement of diving with real sharks in a cage," says Abdul Bakhrani, CEO, DigiComm, who created the exhibit.
The "cage" consists of 48 55" LG screens again driven by tiled BrightSign 4K players. Situated under the hull of a research ship protruding from the wall of the Aquarium, the digital cage was designed exclusively by DigiComm for the exhibit. The presentation is spectacular - occasionally one of the sharks leaps towards the cage, and appears to crack the screen. This sequence is accompanied by blood and a very realistic sound effect. Synchronization of the video and the effects is handled flawlessly by the BrightSign players.
Innovative technology allows guests to 'interact' with the sharks whilst simultaneously learning about their biology. DigiComm used the luma key masking feature offered by BrightSign players, allowing graphics and other videos to display through transparencies in the video window.
Continuing, visitors are offered a further world: a 20m aquarium demi-tunnel, with the back wall of the tank formed of LG LED screens. The real fish swimming in front are apparently of one piece with the graphical images of sharks on the screen behind. Using touch screens interfacing directly to the BrightSign players driving the screens, guests can select which shark species they would like to see swimming on the LED screens in the background.
"The sharks inside the exhibit represent the 100 million sharks that are finned every year. This is a practice that we need to stop. We hope this exhibit delivers that message," said Paul Hamilton, general manager and curator of Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo.
(Jim Evans)
Photo caption: BrightSign players drive a digital shark cage bringing visitors into the world of great white sharks
