Digital Projection recreates In Paris the life of Pompeii and the eruption of Vesuvius

Its E-Vision Laser solution has been used by French integrator ETC Onlyview in a project launched at the Grand Palais, to relive the last days of this city. This is done through multisensory exposure, which includes 360-degree projections, sound creations and 3D reconstructions of streets and homes.

Réunion des Musées Nationaux – Grand Palais (Rmn-GP) and Gedeon Programmes, in collaboration with Pompeii Archaeological Park (Pompeii Archaeological Park), have launched an exhibition offering visitors an immersive in the heart of the city of Pompeii, in his days of splendor and during the tragedy of his destruction. This is offered through high-definition 360-degree projections, sound creations and 3D reconstructions of streets and homes.

The idea of creating an immersive experience of Pompeii was conceived by Stéphane Milliére, president of Gedeon Programmes and producer of docudrama related to this city, Les derniéres heures de Pompéi, in collaboration with Rmn-GP.

"After visiting the exhibitions of the Arab World Institute (Ima, Arab World Institute) and the light workshop works, I realized that with the 4K images and audiovisual material we had already produced, we could create an exhibition that immersed visitors in the heart of these exceptional excavations", milliere comments.

Located in a space of 1.200 square meters with a height of 18 metre, in the Grand Palais Hall of Honour, visitors meet a Pompeii square located in the year 79 D.c.. This space houses a statue and a giant projection screen and two streets come out of it. In addition, is offered, at intervals, a representation of the eruption.

The scenery of the streets with the domus (houses) offers a tour that presents other types of projections, including 3D models of buildings of the time created by Aristéas that improve the level of immersion generated by video screens.

"To create this exhibition we focus on projections staged within an architectural design. Audiovisual technology is gaining importance in exhibition spaces. Visitors enter this gigantic hall and encounter an architectural space of projections. Screens give perspective, prolonging the streets in their finals, and the walls of the domus also serve as projection surfaces. likewise, there are video projections inside each house. To do this, it was necessary to install a total of 31 4K projectors", says Roei Amit, Digital director for the Rmn-GP.

the 31 projectors used in the exhibition are from the E-Vision Laser model 11000 4K-UHD Digital Projection, choice of ETC Onlyview. A team of 1DLP and 10.500 lumens that guarantees a great luminosity to counteract any ambient light that is in the exhibition. Its 4K-UHD resolution allows visitors to approach projections to capture all the clarity and details of the content.

The installation has also benefited from the flexibility of the multi-targeting orientation of this projector, a key aspect, since several systems were mounted in portrait mode or pointing downwards. The mix of edges it offers also allowed for wide, seamless images, immersing visitors in the daily life of Pompeii.

likewise, four Laser E-Visions have also been mounted 11000 4K-UHD at both ends of the exhibition to offer a perspective on a Pompeii street, that gets visitors to dive instantly as they enter the exhibition. Two domus flank each side of the street and exhibit a videomapping on the facade, thanks to a couple of projectors that project on each of the four facades.

The square is possibly the cornerstone of the exhibition, with a projection of Mount Vesuvius in the background that includes two Digital Projection 4K systems.

Inside each house, visitors get familiar with Pompeii's history. Domus I offers a generic presentation of the city with the help of three 4K teams, each projected onto a wall built for this purpose. At Domus II, visitors learn about archaeological excavations over the years, thanks to a Laser E-Vision 8500 WUXGA, coupled to an ultra-short lens 0,57. For its part, Domus III has two other 4K projectors and the images explain the analysis of the excavations.

In this, a team projects the images onto the ground using another ultra-short lens 0,57 and another 4K system offers more explanations about the wall.

At last, at Domus IV, visitors can see a fresco of 15×5,5 meters that reproduces down to the smallest detail, thanks to six side-mount Digital Projection boxes, blurring the boundaries between the real and the virtual.

"We had already worked with E-Vision laser projectors in previous exhibitions, so we knew that the technical characteristics offered by this solution were what we needed", says a spokesperson for ETC Onlyview. "We needed 4K resolution, but also, color and luminosity performance are perfect for this type of large-scale image, and the multiple choice of optics of this projector makes it adaptable to each type of projection".

Projectors, located on the street of the exhibition, show content created by Gedeon Programmes. The images, distributed by a Onlyview media server, present life as it was in Pompeii at the time, complemented by the sounds of the city, like kids playing, inhabitants buying and soldiers marching through the streets.

As the exposure progresses, animated scenes of city life begin to fade slowly as the eruption approaches, being replaced by the barking of dogs and the sounds of panic, palpable by the change in atmosphere. Projectors begin to show a cloud of gray smoke that takes over all images of Pompeii. "After a tremendous noise to which a moment of silence follows, the light comes back and we start again in a cycle of 30 minutes", explains Milliere.

Install more than 30 projectors for this colossal project was not without obstacles. "Most challenges arose with the 'embedding' of projectors in the sets, because many had to be installed and we didn't want them to interfere with the design".

Having been postponed due to the pandemic, the exhibition opened on 1 July and is currently open to the public. The initial intention of this event was to last until 27 September, but in light of the success achieved, organizers have recently announced that it will continue until 2 November.

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