Fireplace Hall displays develop students’ soft skills
AV integrator Polymedia installed nearly floor-to-ceiling LED screens, plus displays disguised as mirrors and fires, at a centre which uses the arts to develop emotional and social intelligence.
AV and IT integrator Polymedia has completed a project at the Centre for Media Arts in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The centre, which is a division of the Academy of Talents, an extracurricular educational institution, features a modern digital educational environment that helps develop children’s skills in arts and technology.
The goal of the project was to create a learning environment where students enjoy the creative process, develop emotional intelligence while working on projects, and learn about social responsibility for the content they share on the Internet. Technology deployed in the centre helps develop soft skills important for the future career and life of the students.
Within the scope of this project, Polymedia integrated a set of audiovisual solutions at the centre’s Fireplace Hall. This is a spacious room that is used to hold lectures, workshops, events and film screenings. Polymedia worked with the customer and a designer to make sure the architecture of the space is preserved and the equipment blends in with the interior.
The installation includes two vertical nearly floor-to-ceiling LED screens that display digital versions of paintings and historical photos obtained through the collaboration of the academy with famous museums in Saint Petersburg. The works are scanned in very high quality which helps viewers appreciate every detail of the art. Images can be selected and arranged to create an ambience and an educational environment around a specific topic. For example, one of the themed events included the collection of photos of famous dancers such as Ida Rubinstein, Vaslav Nijinsky, Vera Fokina, Mathilde Kschessinska, Tamara Karsavina, Anna Pavlova, Michael Fokine. The Fireplace Hall can also be used to hold exhibitions of students’ works.
The floor-to-ceiling LED screens are installed in the niches of a single wall, to the right and to the left of a decorative fireplace. The size of each screen is 1.92 х 3.78 metres while the pixel pitch is 2.5mm and the resolution is 768 х 1512 px. The screens are installed in AET Koala 2.5 cabinets.
The hall also features three vertical 55in displays disguised as mirrors hanging on the room walls. The displays are installed into custom frames matching the interior design, and, when switched off, function as regular mirrors. In power-on mode, the mirror screens can display images that complement the art or other information displayed on the large LED screens.
Two more displays are integrated into the depth of decorative fireplaces and imitate an open fire, to create a homely ambience while avoiding fire risk. This installation features 4K 43in Panasonic TH-43EQ1W panels.
The Fireplace Hall helps to create a special environment for student engagement: by the fireplace, under the warm light of a lamp, sitting on colourful ottomans the students can enjoy reading and listening to the texts of various epochs and engage in discussions.
The content can be displayed either separately on each of the screens or function as a synchronised composition. BrightSign XT1144 players are used for content management.
The hall also features a motorised AV Stumpfl BIM-SF500 projection screen with a size of 5 x 4 m and an Epson EB-L1100U projector with the ELPLX01 ultra short-throw lens. This display system is used to present materials during seminars, meetings and events that take place in the hall. In its folded state, the screen is decorated to look like an integral architectural element.
The buffet, a smaller space adjacent to the hall, also features a 4K 80in Sharp PN-H801 display. It is used for separate meetings and workshops taking place in the room.
The entire system, including sound, switching and display systems is managed via Extron equipment. To facilitate administration, the team installed a control panel on a wall in the Fireplace Hall, where one can switch on and off the equipment, plug in the USB and load the necessary information. If required, the system can also be controlled remotely.
“The result brings joy to the students of our centre, as well as to the teachers, guests and social partners. Many workshops, lectures have been held at the Centre for Media Arts. From the moment it opened its doors in September 2019, it became the location for international, national and city-level events and an exhibition space. The technical equipment helped to hold a hackathon for the visual arts studio and partner schools. During immersive educational holiday events – a new format for interaction with high school students – the teachers of the centre managed to combine six educational streams: digital art, DJing, photo art, video recording and editing, graphic design and 3D modelling,” said the director of the Аcademy of Talents, Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Polukarova.
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Posted: 20th February 2020