In July of 2021, the DaVinci Science Center sought out Ideum to be the lead designer for an immersive projection theater of a truly immense scale. The projection theater is part of a brand new 64,000 sqft building in the heart of Allentown, PA. Curiosity Hall is one of 4 major halls in the DaVinci Science Center and a truly show-stopping experience for guests!
Ideum led the project development with our partners at Roto, MKSD, and others, from early concept through execution and final installation. In this process, we ensured the building infrastructure was in place to support the vast 60’ tall by nearly 60’ wide projection surface. The final build included 8 Christie projectors with a total resolution of over 36 million pixels and 130,000 lumens.
The exhibit consists of three separate group interactive applications modeled off DaVinci’s areas of study, art, engineering, and the human body. All three applications rotate on a 10-minute schedule, keeping this large immersive environment fresh for the anticipated 400,000 annual visitors.
Each scene projects a fully rendered 3D environment on the North wall. Nine Ideum 43” Drafting II Kiosks act as the audience's palette, inviting them to submit their unique creations to the projection. Each application allows guests to explore one of DaVinci’s areas of study: artistic principles used in the Renaissance, the engineering mechanics of flight, or how to make healthy choices in their daily lives. While Ideum did the bulk of the concept, schematic, and detailed design for all applications, Ideum was assisted by Roto’s software development team in the creation of the third application, Fit Kids.
The nine kiosks are designed to allow up to 36 unique visitor creations or 216 users per hour, ensuring plenty of capacity for one of the Da Vinci Science Center’s premier and largest experiences. A seeding program is used to keep the immersive projection interesting for any size audience, even on slower days. In addition, Ideum designed a robust CMS (content management system) so that the Science Center can continue to update the application to feature partners, holidays, or target specific SEAD (science, engineering, art, and design) educational goals as they change.
In addition to the main projection wall, two accessory projectors flank the exhibit hall. These additional projection surfaces are connected to the CMS and allow the science center to highlight “Profiles in Curiosity.” Local or historical figures who capture the curiosity of Leonardo Da Vinci serve to inspire local school children into SEAD careers.
As one of the largest spaces in the DaVinci Science Center, Curiosity Hall also serves as an important community space for Allentown. The nine kiosks are designed to be removed from the floor and a folding wall can be opened up to allow access to the Science in the Making theater. Combined, the Science Center can fit dozens of banquet tables or hundreds of seated participants. Ideum designed the North wall projection system to allow an external video signal to be used as a large format screen or take over the entirety of the 3,600 sq ft projection surface. Making Curiosity Hall a larger-than-life attraction for lectures, concerts, or weddings in Allentown PA.
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