Iberia Express celebrates its achievements with the projection of a virtual flight between Madrid and Tenerife

For 360º virtual projection, Newmedia used a geodesic dome with 6 Christie Roadster HD20K-J projectors, as well as a 7thSense Delta Media Server player for image processing, Medialon to manage peripherals and an FHD461-X LCD flat panel to simulate a gate display.

Iberia Express Celebrates that it has reached the 10 million passengers in three years and that has been recognized by the industry with the award for the 'most punctual low-cost airline in the world' organizing a virtual flight between Madrid and Tenerife. To make this projection he used a dome of 360 Degrees provided by the live event specialist Newmedia Creative Technology Studio and Christie.

Converted into a real Iberia Express aircraft, the dome of Newmedia was for three days the scene of multiple sessions of free admission in which, in a journey through the history of aviation and the achievements of the company during these first three years, hundreds of passengers were able to embark on a virtual trip to the island of Tenerife.

"We wanted an event that would allow us to communicate those two milestones in a technologically innovative way., since it is one of the points that define a part of our DNA and in which we actively work, Always looking for products that make us stand out in that area", says Paloma Utrera, Head of Sales at Iberia Express.

The biggest challenge was to generate a realism that the audience could experience being inside an airplane and the feeling of flying..

"We did a virtual simulation using an Oculus Rift virtual reality system that we fixed to a specific point and, That way, simulate what would later be the platform or fuselage of the aircraft. later, by creating a 360º movie in real time, We were modifying or changing the equator of the film to test the sensation of takeoff and landing, which was undoubtedly the Achilles heel of this virtual journey. Once we saw that this was possible we took it to the scale of an Airbus A320.", explains Diego De Anna, CEO of Newmedia.

Newmedia used a geodesic dome with internal projection system by negative pressure of 21,7 meters in diameter and 11 height with an approximate surface area of 364 square meters.

Inside this structure, a part of the fuselage of an Airbus A320 was recreated in real size., The company's flagship aircraft. Mounted on a platform that had a sub-bass vibration system, 90 Royal seats provided by Iberia Express gave life to the plane.

Guests were greeted as if arriving at an airport and led to the dome through a glazed tunnel that simulated the Airbus fuselage.. Once inside and settled in their seats, The personnel of the aircraft gave the usual safety recommendations on all flights.

Below, by means of a vibration system in synchrony with the projection of images in 360 Degrees, The sensation was generated among the attendees that the device was moving and taking off. Once in the 'air', After the classic greeting and indications from the captain of the flight, images of Tenerife were projected, as well as an audiovisual production with the history and achievements of Iberia Express. And through sophisticated handling of real, computer-generated images, The audience was able to recreate a real flight situation.

An immersive 360º flight

For the staging of this project, six Christie Roadster HD20K-J projectors were used to create the immersive atmosphere of the dome, working at almost 3K resolution with more than 12 millions of pixels.

With five teams distributed symmetrically, the base and equator of the projection were made., and with a sixth the dome itself, which allowed to have a 360º x 180º projection.

The six projectors were located on truss structures two meters high and mounted on a ball joint that Newmedia specially designed and that allowed to adjust between 0º/65º the necessary angle.

The Delta Media Server player 7thSense was used for image processing, which was uncompressed TGA sequence 4.4.4. Also used Medialon as a control system to govern peripherals and a Christie FHD461-X LCD flat panel was installed on the outside of the dome to simulate the screen of a boarding gate indicating the time and destination of the flight.

The use of blending and warping was key to fitting the projection accurately into the irregular surface on which it was projected..

"In fact,, This projection system is so complex that in some places they converge up to more than four blending points, four doing blending at the same point and on a curved surface", explains Diego De Anna. "Both blending and warping are done externally from our Delta server., But we did it that way because of the issue of polar correction and self-aligment.".

The projection surface was 800 square meters and the resolution of 2,700×2.700 Pixels, I mean, close to 3K. Projected content included CGI sequences, Images shot in 360º, conventional videos in 4K and archive material provided by Iberia Express.

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