Harbord Diggers’ new foyer harbours an amazing digital, interactive aquarium.
Just what every foyer needs: a digital interactive aquarium!
There’s plenty more to recommend the new Harbord Diggers. It’s a $160m redevelopment on Sydney’s North Shore, that’s taking the primo NSW clubs concept to a whole new level: accommodation, restaurants, bars, entertainment, childcare, a gym, gaming, and an old people’s home… It’s huge, impressive, and fast becoming a one-stop destination for Harbord, Manly and beyond.
The 12-panel video wall is quite dazzling. Harbord Diggers have partnered with Prendi, a Brisbane-based digital signage solutions provider which specialises in delivering interactive solutions such as this.
“When Harbord Diggers approached us, they had plans for a 12-screen video wall.” says James Ingram, Prendi’s Managing Director. “We instantly knew this would be sure to catch the attention of any visitor walking into the space. The key however, is to have content that maximises and utilises the full capabilities of this fantastic touchscreen videowall. This content needed to be in-keeping with the environment and appealing to their intergenerational community. To do so, we have developed a state-of-the-art interactive aquarium.”
The Harbord Diggers Interactive Wall is a multifaceted solution, bringing together much more than just an underwater aquarium scene.
GO FISH
On the left you’ll see a floating social media feed, which pulls content directly from @HarbordDiggers-tagged Instagram photos. The interactive feed gives users the opportunity to enlarge and drag the images around the video wall. With this solution, Prendi developed a custom back-end portal which allows Harbord Diggers to approve posts to feature.
On the right is an option for users to interact further with the videowall; press ‘Feed Fish’ and a suite of animal animations are unlocked. Alternatively, click on ‘History’ and you can watch key videos about the Harbord Diggers journey.
“We have also integrated basic artificial intelligence into the solution.” James explains, “Bubbles appear at your fingertips when interacting with the videowall, and schools of fish will become curious and investigate the bubbles. It’s these ‘small’ details which add depth and immersion to the overall solution.”
PHASE 2
If all that wasn’t enough, there’s more in store for the video wall. Harbord Diggers and Prendi have already begun development of Phase 2, which will see more advanced interactivity, including artificial intelligence, real-time effects and new scenes.
Stay tuned.
Prendi: (07) 3844 1134 or www.prendi.com.au
THE TECH: BUILT LIKE A ‘TANK’
The video wall system was integrated and installed by Fredon. Selecting a seamless touch-enabled video wall was a crucial decision. A touch-enabled single display is relatively easy to come by, but as soon as you go larger — in this case, a 4×3 video wall — the options are restricted to specialised vendors. One of the biggest names in large-format touch is Planar.
Planar’s Clarity Matrix G3 LCD Video Wall System combines an ultra-narrow bezel with powerful video processing, management and associated electronics.
Harbord Diggers uses a 46-inch high brightness (800 nits) MX version of the product. There’s only 1.7mm bezel-to-bezel, providing that nearly-seamless look you want in a video wall. Installers appreciate the integrated EasyAxis mounting system. The result is a video wall that protrudes less than 10cm from the surface behind. Unlike other manufacturers, Planar provides the video wall processing as part of the system, which takes care of any scaling duties, and can handle multiple sources for Brady Bunch-style multi views and/or picture-in-picture.
In this case, Prendi provided and installed a beefy, Intel i9-based, custom-built PC to serve the content. The Windows box runs 3x Quadro video cards with a Sync II card outputting at an eye-watering 7680×5760/60p.
Planar is accustomed to dealing with customers with unique and exacting demands and its products are designed to always be up. There’s plenty of redundancy so you can hot swap components and never miss a beat.
Midwich (Planar): 1300 666 099 or midwich.com.au
Fredon Technology: www.fredon.com.au