EPSON CHOSEN FOR NEW FONTERRA AUDITORIUM

With more than 30 manufacturing sites across New Zealand and processing about 16 billion litres of the country’s milk each year, Fonterra is no small organisation. Recently a decision was made to centralise all of its staff into one new Auckland-based HQ. Part of this building housed a new auditorium and a new visitor’s centre, and both areas had very specific AV requirements.

The auditorium project was particularly ambitious — the requirement was to bring it to a high enough standard that Fonterra would no longer need to hire external venues for presentations. Automation Associates (AA), the systems integrator on the project, specified edge-blending Epson EB-G6970WU projectors across the entire background being projected upon within the auditorium.

Rupert Brown, Design Engineering Manager for AA, comments, “Fonterra wanted a wow factor in the auditorium so we came up with a design that integrated 13 Epson EB-G6970WU projectors which seamlessly edge blended to give a 270° projection onto custom-designed motorised screens. It means Fonterra can now dynamically change the screen and edge blending as the room configuration changes.”

For the training, seminars, group workshops, host events and press conferences held in the Fonterra auditorium the new 270° projection solution raised a bar in presentation standard to a level never seen before.

AA used the Coolux Pandoras Box media and show control system to handle the edge blending, whilst simultaneously communicating with the projectors via the output fed into a custom-created digital media frame. AA also configured the auditorium so the screens could be divided down the centre, giving Fonterra the option of two separate 270° rooms or a larger combined 270° projection system.

Factors like image quality, reliability and functionality all contributed to Automation Associate’s decision to employ Epson projectors in the Fontera auditorium.

Brown: “We chose the EB-G6970WU projectors as they have a good short throw for minimum shadow when a viewer approaches the screen and they easily enabled us to cover the 45m of screen we needed at an affordable price. The lens on the EB-G6970WU was also a big part of why it was selected as it allowed us to reduce the number of projectors required while still being short enough that shadows aren’t cast until close to the screen. Finally having on-board HDBaseT was a big win as it reduced the required hardware and cabling to connect the projectors.”

The visitor’s experience centre presented a different challenge according to Brown. “In the visitor’s experience centre, Fonterra wanted to project pre-recorded exhibits and pre-made videos with ultra-sonic sensors built into the ceiling so the projection would start as the visitor approached. What was needed here was a top quality, highly reliable and very easily integrated projector. So, based on the success of the auditorium installation, the decision was made to again go with multiple Epson EB-G6970WU projectors, all of which work perfectly with the sensors and perform brilliantly.”

More Info:
Epson: www.epson.co.nz