‘First LED immersive VR power wall in academia’ installed

Virtalis has designed what is said to be the first LED immersive VR power wall in academia, at the Regent College London.

The 4.86m by 2.39m ActiveWall is made out of a 1.2mm pixel pitch SiliconCore display, with interactivity delivered through an Advanced Realtime Tracking (ART) solution to ensure that the virtual world moves to the perspective of each user.

Funded by the Office For Students, the Transformative Educational Digital Laboratory brings complex datasets to life by offering digital technology, computing and engineering students a hands-on approach to learning.

The LED display delivers a resolution of just under 4K and a brightness of up to 1,200 nits. The power wall runs at 120 frames per second, enabling the creation of an active 3D environment that allows users to visualise and interact with the virtual world.

The environment features six cameras that track users to align them with the datasets in the virtual space and allow them to interact with it. The use of head-tracked active 3D glasses means the virtual world moves to users’ true perspective, allowing them to walk around models and even look underneath them.

A hand-held interactive device triggers the interaction, so users can manipulate the dataset by selecting items and moving them around. The multi-sensory immersion is enhanced by a 5:1 surround audio system.

The virtual world is brought to life by Virtalis’s Visionary Render software, which allows life-sized VR scenes to be created.

When selecting an LED display, Virtalis took into account the total cost of ownership, to deliver lower operational costs and to align with the college’s sustainability initiatives. SiliconCore’s LED display – driven by its Common Cathode technology – proved the ideal solution.

This powers individual LEDs in a more efficient way by supplying dedicated power voltages to each individual LED, eliminating heat wastage at PCB level with up to 50% cooler operating temperatures. This allows the cabinets to be fitted snugly into the alcove, maximising room space and negating the need for dedicated fans.

Professor Ilias Oraifige, head of Regent College London’s School of Engineering and Computing, says: “Virtalis’s ActiveWall solution is the same system that the world’s leading enterprise companies are using, which is essential to giving our students hands-on experiences that are immediately transferable to the workplace.

“The advancement from projection to an LED solution means that we are operating at the cutting edge of what is currently feasible, resulting in a world-class advanced-visualisation facility.”