Interactive Video Walls for ITMO University

St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO University) — is the major scientific and educational centre, with long traditions and unique scientific and pedagogical schools. Research and development works are carried out in seven priority areas of science, technology and engineering in the Russian Federation.

A competition was held for the supply and installation of interactive multimedia equipment that will demonstrate and visualize simulation results and the development of complex innovative products requiring a realistic picture. The project required to fit the conference hall with the multimedia equipment with videoconference functions for the University management meetings, working groups and conferences. The University building, where the project was to complete, is located in the former house of Eliseev merchants on the Birzhevaya linya in St. Petersburg — the object of cultural heritage of regional significance.

The equipment for the project is installed by the BELTEL specialists in two rooms: the former bedroom and the living room of the Eliseev merchant. In the first room, designed for conferences and meetings of management, the interactive video wall is installed. It is measuring 3650×1370 mm and is formed of six LG 55″ professional panels. Video wall is equipped with infrared sensor frame and supports up to 40 simultaneous touches.

Apart from the touch display wall, which is the display subsystem, a conference room is equipped with a set of equipment necessary for presentation events. The installed video conferencing system is integrated into existing videoconferencing infrastructure of the University. This allows the employees working at different venues of the University to connect to audio and video conferences .

The second interactive video wall of similar size will be used for the development of interactive visual interfaces of the information systems, created in the University.

The deployed multimedia infrastructure fully meets the stated objectives. By the present date, the installed touch video walls are among the largest installations of this kind in Russia.

“Modern multimedia and sensor technologies — are the great innovative tool, that opens up opportunities both in the educational process, and visual demonstrations of RnD results. I am glad that domestic educational institutions, like the ITMO University, successfully apply advanced technologies in their work”, — said Sergey Shcherbakov, BELTEL Technical Director.

“In the ITMO University a number of scientific groups and laboratories are operating. They work in a variety of application areas, from microbiology and medicine to meteorology and flood forecasting. Due to the IT focus of our University — for the majority of applications IT-solutions or prototypes are created. The majority of them require data visualization and collaborative work capabilities during the research and for results demonstration.

When analyzing the results of computation, simulation, forecasting and other mathematical models data, it is often extremely important to provide additional interactivity and go deeper in the visualized data. Moreover, communication with applications is interactive by default when the principles of computational steering are implemented.

The interactive tables available prior to the implementation of this project have a number of limitations in collaborative work: it is difficult to present information to a lot of people because of the limited perimeter of the horizontal table as well as because of the table surface facing up, rather than a spectator. You also need specially adapted interfaces for working with table-top application from all sides. Yes, they also remain in demand (eg, for mobile-site demonstrations or a small audience). But the implementation of a large vertical interactive device allows both to optimize the development of interactive collaborative applications, and to expand the audience involved in the project demonstration”, — says Andrey Karsakov, Engineer of the Research Institute of Computer Science-Intensive Technologies of the ITMO University, head of the research group” Visualization and Computer Graphics. “