Context
Reaching across 43 beautiful acres in Atlanta, the HIES (Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School) campus boasts a state-of-the-art STEM building, stand-alone Primary School, Lower School, Middle School and Upper School facilities, a Fine Arts Building, two modern gymnasiums and four expansive athletic fields.
One of the new learning methods they’re exploring is immersive learning. Their immersive learning labs involve using state-of-the-art technology to create a virtual environment that enables a unique and ultimately better learning experience for their students.
Challenge
As the PEAK immersive learning lab is meant to encourage interaction in the class group, they went looking for a solution that moves away from the typical individual VR experience with head-mounted devices, headphones and hand controllers.
The GeoDome Panorama was provided by The Elumenati, a design and engineering firm with twenty years of experience in immersive projection. Their custom installations and turnkey solutions for domes, panoramas, and globes include screens, projection systems, image generating computers and content management software. The GeoDome Panorama create a Group VR setting that encourages creative thinking and promotes peer interaction amongst the students.
“VR headsets are great, but it's a very individualized experience. The GeoDome Panorama enhances teachers' lessons in a collaborative environment. Several of our teachers have talked about how the students are more engaged. They're asking more questions, they're pointing out and making connections between things that they haven't done in past years,” said Daniel Forrester, Associate Director of PEAK Institute.
Solution
For the PEAK Institute, The Elumenati customized their established GeoDome Panorama design. The screen is 6.8m in diameter and 2.8m high to fit the classroom space. An open screen design with 170° of sweep creates a sense of immersion for students in several rows. A Barco F80 4K UHD single-chip laser phosphor projector is mounted overhead, with the Elumenati’s OmniFocusTM fisheye lens.
The F80 projector delivers the different content with a high level of detail, saturated colors that meet the Rec. 709 color space and at high refresh rates. At 12,000 lumens, the projection system is bright enough to fill the screen with a single projection channel, eliminating the need for edge blending. This combination of Barco and Elumenati technologies greatly simplifies operations.
The system is completed with The Elumenati’s WorldViewer immersive content management system, 2.1 audio speakers inside the screen, and a portable control station which enables a wireless tablet to be used as the main user interface.
Results
The immersive learning lab is experienced by students ranging from pre-K through high school, using WorldViewer to create dome presentations from readily accessible 360 and VR content. Some of the use cases it’s been used for including a 360° video of a battle re-enactment for a class on the American Revolution, and a VR tour of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, for students reading the Diary of Anne Frank.
And the PEAK teachers confirm that the GeoDome Panorama learning lab sparks the engagement saying “I knew it would be cool, but I had no idea how much content and discussion we would get out of it! My students were so excited, and they learned so much. I am thankful we have such an awesome resource at our school.”
