Orlando International Airport (MCO) recently unveiled the new state-of-the-art South Terminal Complex, which welcomes travelers with an Experiential Media Environment (EME). The EME was conceptualized by Executive Producer, MRA International Group with Executive Creative Director Marcela Sardi, Sardi Design.
A focal point of the EME is TheMoment Vault, a compelling immersive multimedia installation powered by the latest interactive technologies. The Moment Vault was designed and managed by Smart Monkeys, Inc., and utilizes Realmotion’s™ interactive media servers and a new proprietary AI-powered marker-less motion capture system. The total solution provides content creators a unique set of capabilities that enable novel, memorable interactive experiences for travelers.
According to Realmotion Founder and Project Lead Alexandre Simionescu, the installation in the Airside Hub of the new Terminal C is a destination itself where passengers can walk through three monumental curved 2mm LED displays that form a circle.
“The Moment Vault reflects Orlando International Airport’s established air, water, and sky aesthetic and provides an exciting new opportunity for visitors to create lasting travel memories and form positive associations with the airport and the city of Orlando,” Simionescu said. “The immersive real-time experience is made possible through Realmotion’s latest G32 real-time media servers and Fusion tracking technology that instantly converts a subject’s motion into digital wireframes that are integrated into the onscreen content produced by creative studio Gentilhomme, providing delightful selfie-ready moments.”
The company’s powerful new multi-GPU Fusion server uses six cameras to provide 3D marker-less tracking for up to twenty-five subjects within the confines of the Moment Vault. The real-time tracking system then transmits the data to three Realmotion G32 servers where it feeds into an Unreal Engine scene.
This setup involves AI and machine learning to ensure accurate people tracking through the generation of a “3D pose estimate” for each individual in the space. Each pose estimate is used to accurately place real-time virtual avatars in live digital content.
Existing pose estimate solutions only worked in 2D and could not differentiate between the size and distance of objects, so Realmotion designed a new, proprietary system that utilizes the aforementioned six cameras to capture the space from different perspectives. Having multiple camera angles also eliminates occlusion, or sight-line blockages, that would otherwise miss visitors who are behind someone else relative to the camera.
This brings a new set of capabilities to location-based immersive environments by providing precise, responsive, and robust 3D marker-less tracking for groups of users.
Knowing that content designers need more than one tool to bring their visions to life, Realmotion provides support for industry-leading tools including Unreal engine, ISAAC, Unity, Notch, TouchDesigner and Realmotion Flow to enable ultimate flexibility for real-time content creation.
“This project is a crowd pleaser, and that is its intent,” Simionescu continued. “More and more organizations are looking to create novel technological experiences for customers and guests, and they often require significant research and development, including software design and new combinations of hardware. At Realmotion, we are building on the success of our tools by turning the best of them into productized solutions that can be deployed industry-wide with greater speed and affordability, as we are planning to do with our G32 and Fusion servers that helped bring The Moment Vault to life.”
Realmotion has previously worked with Smart Monkeys, Inc., a Florida-based consulting firm that specializes in feature-centric technology implementations for location-based entertainment, and was brought in to provide a cutting-edge media server with generative content capabilities and the motion capture system.
“Creating installations that support generative content is critical to maximizing use and flexibility and provides today’s artists with the tools and canvasses they need to present their latest works,” said Smart Monkeys, Inc., Design Consultant Paul Bristol. “Often art installations are temporary traveling exhibits that require tight scheduling and limited options for the host location.
“With the amazing permanent digital canvas offer in the Moment Vault, Orlando International Airport can offer much greater visibility and opportunity to artists and content creators, while enjoying a simpler, more powerful management system.”
Realmotion’s advanced products and capabilities made it the perfect choice for this project, including the fact that Realmotion servers are fully compatible with the ISAAC AV monitoring and management platform used by Smart Monkeys, Inc.
A core goal of the project was to ensure operating and updating the displays is as easy as possible for both owners and artists, and using a trusted, reliable hardware and software solution from Realmotion was key to simplifying daily use.
“We’re also working directly with artists to help identify more streamlined workflows and cut down the time required to go from concept to presentation,” Bristol added. “Our innovations, combined with improvements in LED technology and the supporting infrastructure that enable drag-and-drop content control, can drastically cut the time-to-market for art pieces, reduce costs for owners and enable more artists to be featured.
“In a custom-built environment with a semi-captive audience, these experiences can help artists gain name recognition and notoriety while providing a one-of-a-kind space that is instantly identifiable when shared on social media.”
To help prepare content developers, Realmotion built a software emulator of the tracking system that allows creators to test and develop reactive content without requiring real- world subjects or displays.
The exterior of the Moment Vault is also adorned with 4mm DVLED displays, ensuring that every visitor in Terminal C can be part of the experience, even if they don’t walk through the middle of the installation.
The Moment Vault is the first part of Terminal C’s Experiential Media Environment, which will grow to include two additional high-tech installations.
“Windows On Orlando” comprises three adjacent panoramic screens that form a 100-foot-long, 32-foot-tall display, while “The Portal” presents a 3-story steel sculpture in the shape of a helix featuring 32 custom curved screens. All three digital display experiences display content relevant to the locale, including space launches, underwater adventures, and the story of Florida’s transformation from springs and ranchlands to the dawn of theme parks and spaceports.
“There is high demand for creating memorable moments that don’t require physical touch or employee interaction, and their use is certain to grow as travelers and consumers begin to expect these types of installations,” Simionescu added. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and now that we’ve figured out the way to deliver these amazing experiences, we are excited to see what other organizations have the desire to build something special with us.”
Realmotion was part of a world-class team that included MRA international Group, Sardi Design, Burns Engineering, Smart Monkeys/SMI, Gentilhomme, SACO Technologies, Hahn Integrated Systems, Electrosonic Systems Inc., Lindy Sheppard, Carolyn Fennell and Rob Branchaeu.
—Press Release
