Barco G100 Projector Brings Former Niagara Parks Power Station to Life

Thinkwell Studio Montreal Used 23 Projectors ship G100 to bring the visual and auditory experience to life ‘Currents: Niagara's Power Transformed’ of Niagara Parks Power Station.

the Niagara Falls are a natural wonder found on the border between the United States and Canada, with parks on both sides of the Niagara River. On the Ontario side, the park has the world's largest collection of decommissioned hydroelectric power plants.

One of these ancient plants, Niagara Parks Power Station, has been turned into an attraction where visitors enjoy a visual and auditory experience called Currents: Niagara's Power Transformed.

This multimedia experience allows visitors to step back in time and visualize the region's distant geological history., when the falls were first created at the end of the last ice age more than 12.000 years.

The audiovisual show, immersive and interactive, transports visitors to the modern era, where they can see how these plants transformed the raw energy of the falls into electrical energy., how it brought industrialization and growth to the area.

Project realization

The Niagara Parks Commission (Niagara Parks Commission) from Ontario, the government agency in charge of supervising the park, selected a hydroelectric plant of 18.592 square meters and 115 years old to turn it into a tourist spot in the heart of the park.

As part of the project they proposed ideas to combine the heritage of the building with a public attraction that would attract visitors both day and night.. They decided on an interactive multimedia show to tell the story of the falls and educate visitors about their importance in generating electricity..

Parks Commission linked up with Thinkwell Studio Montréal, a design and production agency that creates immersive experiences, to create a nighttime experience that completely surrounds the visitor with sights and sounds as they move around the premises.

The designers had to devise a way to integrate the various visual components with the building's open architecture and out-of-service power generation equipment that still occupied sections of the floor space..

In addition, the required hardware (lighting, projectors and wiring) would have to be discreet enough, flexible and reliable to enable continuous operation without attracting attention or interfering with the experience. and, above all, the presentation team could not compromise the historical integrity of the heritage site.
Thinkwell has designed a system that uses 23 video projectors to bring to life a presentation of 40 minutes with sharp images and sharp colors.

Boat G100

The projection technology chosen was that of ship, specifically the model G100. This G100 Series Single-Chip Projector Delivers Optimal Performance, flexibility and reliability, with high brightness levels, both indoors and outdoors. Supports HDMI 2.0 for richer colors and deeper blacks, providing overall image quality that resists light bleeding.

The G100 is versatile enough to project from short or long distances, with a scope relationship of 0,38 to 10,8. And you can do it in an orientation of 360 Degrees, perfect for Thinkwell requirements.

The projector integrates cooling to withstand ambient operating temperatures of up to 50 C. The G100's laser phosphor light source and advanced cooling design also provide more than 20.000 hours of operation without changing the lamp, saving considerable maintenance costs.

The software Projector Toolset de Barco makes it easy to install and manage the G100 projector with an intuitive user interface. The software's combination and warping capabilities make this equipment ideal for multi-channel media-based attractions such as planetariums., Domes, Theatres, projection mappings or, in this case, the presentation of the Niagara Parks Power Station.

after 18 months of design and installation, Thinkwell and the Niagara Parks Commission launched their groundbreaking show in September. 2021.

"Barco had to convince us because it was a new technology., but once we saw the luminance levels of the G100 and its capabilities not only to adapt to space, but also to project beautiful images in 360 Degrees, there was no doubt that Barco was the choice", explains Julien Roy, Technical Director of Thinkwell Studio Montreal.

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