Regent College London installs a VR power wall, a 4.86m x 2.39m ActiveWall by Virtalis, a VR specialist. Featuring a high-resolution 1.2mm pixel pitch SiliconCore display and interactive capabilities through Advanced Realtime Tracking (ART), the system ensures a dynamic virtual experience tailored to each user’s perspective.
Funded by the Office For Students, Virtalis has advanced the traditional projection method of ActiveWall delivery for a fine pixel pitch solution to provide a better user and operator experience. The 1.2mm LED display delivers a higher resolution at just under 4k, a greater contrast and higher brightness of up to 1200 nits. This enhances details within the complex datasets and enables the power wall to be used in all ambient light conditions.
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. This can be done by multiple users simultaneously for design reviews, ‘hands on’ training, layout planning, operations and to practise maintenance tasks.
The environment features six cameras which track users to align them with the datasets in the virtual space and allow them to interact with it. Headtracked active 3D glasses mean the virtual world moves to their true perspective, allowing them to walk around models and even look underneath them. A handheld interactive device triggers the interaction so they can manipulate the dataset by selecting items and moving them around. The multisensory immersion is further enhanced by a 5:1 surround audio system.
The virtual world is brought to life by Virtalis’s proprietary Visionary Render software. This allows for the creation of bespoke VR scenes that imitate real life in 1:1 scale, with the company delivering ongoing training and development to futureproof the solution as the curriculum evolves.
Professor Ilias Oraifige, Head of School of Engineering and Computing at Regent College London says:
“Virtalis has been a great partner to deliver our Transformative Educational Digital Laboratory. Its 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 very cutting edge of what is currently feasible, resulting in a world class advanced visualisation facility.”
