The University of the Arctic recreates the Northern Lights all year round with a screening of Barco

Ten laser projectors ship G60-W8 and two F80-4K7 recreate the spectacle of the Northern Lights in real color and optimal level of black in the University of the Arctic, in Norway.

Tourists from all over the world travel to Norway to witness the Northern Lights. However, due to its unpredictable nature, this amazing spectacle of nature can be easily missed. That's why, the best alternative to keep seeing it is the University of the Arctic Museum, in the Norwegian city of Tromsø, which has become the only place in the world where you can see the Northern Lights every day of the year thanks to an advanced projection montage powered by Barco.

The Museum of the Arctic University of Norway offers various exhibitions on Nordic culture and fauna and medieval ecclesiastical art. But one of the museum's most recent and attractive additions is the aurora borealis exhibition.. This scientific exhibition shows the interesting history of northern lights research, but there are also many opportunities to marvel at the beauty of this phenomenon.

Exciting museum experience

“With this exhibition, we wanted to go beyond a traditional and static museum assembly, and create something really innovative -explains Cathrine Paus, project manager of the University Museum of the Arctic-. We believed that we could only do justice to advanced research on the Northern Lights with advanced technology., and that's exactly what we found with Barco”.

The exhibition invites visitors to see the Northern Lights from up close and allows them to discover how it is formed through stunning projections, interactive models and computer animations. In this way, the museum brings an interesting mix of education and experience.

This project was carried out with the help of Stagelab, Nordic distributor of ship, the system integrator Caverion and the specialist in AV Superlys. “We wanted to create an amazing experience, but it also had to be scientifically correct," says Tor Ditlevsen., Superlys lighting designer-. The biggest challenge of the exhibition was to really recreate the northern lights using projectors. This is not easy, because the colors of the aurora should be displayed on a background as dark as possible, thanks to the excellent levels of black of the barco projectors we did it”.

The exhibition uses eight units of the laser phosphor projector G60-W8 Barco (each with a power of 8.000 lumens and WUXGA resolution) for a tunnel 7,5 meters long by which visitors can walk to immerse themselves in the Northern Lights. The total projected area of this tunnel is nothing less than 56 m2.

Two more G60-W8 projectors are also used for a mapping installation showing images related to research on a Sami store, which is also used in another exhibition that is next door and that thanks to the compact design of this project, no space had to be sacrificed.

In addition, two laser projectors are used F80-4K7 (with a power of 7.000 lumens each and 4K UHD resolution) from the manufacturer to provide representations of the aurora with scientifically accurate colors in two different assemblies.

Reliable projection technology

“I have been working in the sector for more than twenty-five years and I have come to know barco's projection technology very well - says Tor Ditlevsen.. I am very glad to have been able to use your projectors for this technically demanding exhibition.. In projects like this it is essential that all technological components work perfectly, and with these equipment we will be safe for many years, no need for a dedicated on-site support person 24/7”.

Another advantage of having a digital exhibition is that it is very easy to change the content. According to Cathrine Paus, groups of students want to see different things than regular tourists. Now it is very easy to change the content oriented to tourism for a more educational assembly.

“Our ambition is to bring young people back to the museum and we also want to stimulate their interest in northern lights research.. Museums don't have to be boring. With barco's technology used in this exhibition we have shown that museums can be great and dynamic, and attracting the interests of young people”.

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