RES installation at Qatar National Museum
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The result is the world’s biggest ever permanent video installation – the result of a collaboration between RES, the Doha Film Institute (DFI) and MAN Enterprise / EMPTY Joint Venture. London-based visual technologists, RES, started work on the project in 2014, providing technical consultancy and video media system expertise to The Doha Film Institute (DFI) on technical realisation and pre-visualisation of each film.
As part of its ambitious ‘Art Film’ project, the DFI commissioned nine filmmakers to produce content about Doha’s culture and history, which would be projection mapped in high-resolution onto the museum’s internal surfaces, every day from launch.
“This is the biggest project RES has ever undertaken,” says Mark Calvert, who managed the project with RES co-founder, Dave Green. “When we first learned about the ambitions for video playback, projection mapping and technical planning, the sheer size of it became apparent. It took all of the skills, experience and technical wizardry we possess to make it happen. This is visual technology on an unprecedented scale.”
Dr Karen Mary Excell is senior museum development specialist at Qatar Museums, and has been instrumental in the realisation of the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) project.
“The technology behind each Art Film has been deeply researched to ensure that NMoQ is delivering a ground-breaking, world-class experience,” says Excell. “Mark and Dave’s work has been at the centre of this success, with their software, hardware and professional skills applied to the entire project scope of the Art Films’ development and delivery. We are very grateful for their expertise, passion and dedication.”
The video project is on a vast scale. RES estimates that 21,000,000,000 [21 billion] pixels are processed each second, by 172 media servers driving 112 Panasonic 4K projectors. More than one petabyte of media is stored and on playback, the data fed by 50.6km of 3G SDI cabling. Each video requires full motion image resolution as high as 25K by 4K, to cover more than 33,000 sq.ft.
One of the biggest challenges was the sheer quantity of AV equipment, all of which needed to work together in perfect synchronicity. To address this, HIVE Media Control Ltd - a new UK company formed by RES and Harrison Digital Media Inc. - designed a new, bespoke software package called HIVE. HIVE controls and monitors all the Art Films systems site-wide and facilitates simple, intuitive operation of the highly complex system.
From the beginning of the project, RES worked closely with Dean Winkler, founder of New York-based Winkler Consulting Inc. on the technical and creative aspects of the video installation project. Winkler has been working on NMoQ’s Art Films project since 2013 in his capacity as the Senior Engineer, Production and Post Production, for the DFI.
Designed by architect Jean Nouvel, the National Museum of Qatar is located on a 1.5 million sq.ft site surrounding the existing Fariq Al Salatah Palace, which had served as a museum of heritage since 1975.
(Jim Evans)
