Come fly with me!

The first significant entertainment sector installation of our StereoServer 3D movie playback system was at the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum, known as the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, which opened in 2004 and is located at Michigan, midway between Chicago and Detroit, in the United States.

Virtalis was commissioned to supply and install its unique ‘StereoServer’ package that allows 3D visuals to be presented via multiple projectors onto a 60-foot wide, 180° wraparound screen. This includes a B17 bomber at 1:1 scale!

For many years, cost was the inhibiting factor for operators seeking to offer a compelling and enthralling immersive high-resolution digital stereo, 3D movie experience with sequenced effects. The StereoServer system uses high bandwidth playback technology, either through single, or multiple interlaced projectors, via a genlocked PC cluster. A highly configurable package at a tenth of the price of now defunct predecessors, it is completely scaleable to incorporate additional effects systems required by the growing market of 3D rides and 4D theatres.

Using the client’s own CAD models, Virtalis can facilitate - as on the Air Zoo project - the ability to visualise the proposed attraction’s performance from each seat in the house. This gives designers and attraction owners the opportunity to make any crucial changes before the physical system is completed and to test those modifications fully, negating the need for post installation rework.

The Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum uses its 4D theatre to show a popular feature recreating the final foray of a team of US airmen on a bombing mission in World War II. The prime contractor for the Kalamazoo Aviation Museum said: “Virtalis has proved to be a fundamental component in the development and delivery of Kalamazoo, allowing us to meet the customer’s requirements and price scale. Since the implementation, the Salute to the Heroes film has played thousands of times.”

The multi-million dollar air museum's theme is aviation past, present and future.  More information can be found on the Kalamazoo Air Zoo website - www.airzoo.org.