Lewis CaliburnLightroom, a home of artist-led immersive shows in London, has turned to Panasonic to showcase some of the world’s greatest artists and innovators. It is using 28 state-of-the-art Panasonic 3-Chip DLP projectors, providing visuals that bring stories to life in an immersive experience.
From December 6 to April 2024, a new immersive experience called The Moonwalkers, will offer a unique perspective on the manned Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and 1970s, often cited as mankind’s greatest achievement.
Panasonic projectors will bring newly remastered images of Apollo to life, alongside interviews with astronauts from the current manned lunar programme, Artemis. The experience will be narrated by actor Tom Hanks.
Lightroom’s CEO and producer of The Moonwalkers, Richard Slaney, says, “Lightroom’s mission is to create new kinds of experiences with the world’s greatest creative voices, using ground-breaking technology to tell stories for everyone. Tom Hanks is an icon, with unparalleled experience of great cinematic storytelling, and has a true passion and expertise for the history of space exploration. Alongside a world-class international creative team, he’s the perfect person to bring to life the Apollo and Artemis missions as never before and unlock even more of Lightroom’s potential.”
To bring the vibrancy of the Apollo images to life, Lightroom will utilise 14 Panasonic PT-RQ22K 3-Chip DLP projectors for the space’s walls, with their pixel-quadrupling technology producing 4K+ visuals at 20,000 lumens.
Creating immersive effects from challenging angles without casting shadows is achieved through the RQ22K’s full lens shift capabilities, enabled by a 360-degree installation through any axis and Panasonic’s Ultra Short Throw (UST) lenses on many of the projectors.
Lightroom has also deployed 14 Panasonic PT-RZ12K 3-Chip DLP projectors that project 12,000 lumens onto the floor, creating an all-encompassing experience that transports visitors to the lunar surface.
Prior to The Moonwalkers, David Hockney’s Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) was attracting crowds and critics’ plaudits as the first in a series of original exhibitions at Lightroom, capturing the visual brilliance of Hockney’s six decades of work, thoughts and creative processes.
Both exhibitions have been spearheaded by 59 Productions, with immersive storytelling and sound to accompany the visuals provided by Panasonic projectors, delivered by disguise and HOLOPLOT, respectively.
With exhibitions running for more than four months at a time, seven days a week, the RQ22K’s filter-less design and airtight, dust-proof optical system delivers 24/7 continuous projection, and 20,000 hours of maintenance-free use.
To monitor projection quality, Lightroom uses four Panasonic AW-UE150 and four AW-HE130 PTZ cameras connected to the control room. This enables the team to monitor video playback in forensic analysis and diagnose any technical issues, ensuring exhibitions continue uninterrupted.