Since 1851, international exhibitions have been giving millions of people an opportunity to see achievements of science and technology from different countries in a single place and get more insights into their culture, history and aspirations for the future. Recently, it has become a tradition to choose a theme for each exhibition, and pavilions of all participating countries are built around it. EXPO 2012 was not an exception. It was devoted to "The Living Ocean and Coast" and almost one hundred countries were supposed to present their vision of the theme.
The main task in building the pavilion of the Republic of Kazakhstan was not only to provide multi media equipment, but also end-to-end planning, from the appearance to user interface design. Work led by Avilex Technical Director Sergey Uryadov and VizEx Creative Producer Alexey Samokhin started in 2010 and resulted in a fully planned and built pavilion with all necessary equipment installed, scenarios developed and content created for all areas, including a film about Kazakhstan shot for the theatre. It is important that all multi media solutions were created taking into account potential future use of the majority of equipment at different facilities in Kazakhstan after the end of the exhibition.
The 774m2 pavilion was divided into five interior and one façade (entrance) zones:
- Media façade;
- "Through time and space" corridor;
- Live theatre;
- "Astana 2017" interactive gallery;
- Streets of Kazakh cities; and
- Gift shop.
Media Facade
The front wall of the pavilion, along which visitors queued, was turned into a media facade. It is a 12х2.88 m video wall made of 96 Leyard LED modules with the total resolution of 480х2000 pixels. It showed different images and stills covering the pavilion's theme. The façade screen operated in three main modes: intro, information content and interactive game.
The intro mode included an animated video on the entire surface of the screen with dynamic images of the symbols of Kazakhstan: a waving flag overlaid by views of Kazakhstan and images of important political, scientific, economic and cultural milestones.
In the information mode, the screen showed individual handsomely decorated cards with information about Kazakhstan and activities at the pavilion. There were two demonstration patterns.
The first one included information linked to a map.
The screen was divided into two parts, with one of them showing a map of Kazakhstan, and the other highlighting the place being mentioned in the narrative.
The second pattern was general information. This included an invitation to visit a certain address to take part in an interactive game, review cards from previous visitors, information about the number of visits and many other things.
Interactive game was about virtual races of deep sea inhabitants. Everyone could access the pavilion's wi-fi network, get registered and vote for a chosen character to move it forward using the interface on their mobile devices. The winning creature personally thanked all who had helped it by name. The pavilion attracted visitors with the queue growing increasingly longer, but the interactive possibility to play in teams created a friendly and cheerful atmosphere. Thus, standing in the line was no longer boring.
"Through Time and Space" corridor
The main concept of the pavilion was to bring visitors from modern Korea through the history of Kazakhstan to the present and finally to the future — the year 2017 when Astana would hopefully have the right to host another Expo exhibition.
The "Time Corridor" installed behind the entrance helped people to change perspective, escape from the surrounding reality and move along the tunnel feeling like a character of a science fiction film about traveling in time or hyperspace. The walls had flying patterns and symbols. Throughout the pavilion, you could hear music — a wonderful national melody, with the arrangement varying by zone.
The fog covered the floors beneath your feet being illuminated with every step. This effect required eight arches made from Leyard LED modules, with each one consisting of 31х3 240х240 mm modules. In addition, we used 42 GTEK interactive LED modules (240x240 mm and 1024 pixels per square meter each) on the floors, a fog generator and a moving head light. Having undergone the adaptation in the "Time Corridor", the prepared visitor got to the Live Theatre zone.
Live Theatre
The Live Theatre featured an interesting film about the history of Kazakhstan and the Aral Sea accompanied by live colorful performance of actors. This zone had a spectacular screen structure with a screen for the main content in the center and several screens shaped as the national Kazakh pattern (kerege) for additional videos on the sides.
To achieve better perception of the performance, all the displays were provided with an ambilight system synchronized with the video. The screen structure was illuminated by three pairs of 12000 ANSI Lm Panasonic SXGA+ projectors, with projectors in each pair being aligned pixel to pixel to provide higher brightness of image. The sound and stage lighting systems made watching the film even more exciting.
The theatre was designed to operate in various modes: the screen for movies and the stage for performances. With this in mind, a special control system was provided. The entire complex set of equipment of the theatre, as well as of the other zones of the pavilion, was managed by a simple, functional menu on pads of the stand staff.
"Astana 2017" Interactive Gallery
The next zone transferred visitors from history and myths of Kazakhstan to its present days. It is the interactive gallery "Astana 2017" with several points of interest for visitors to the pavilion. It had a real river illuminated from above by BenQ short-focus XGA projectors with the brightness of 2800 ANSI Lm that can be operated in the vertical position. These created an illusion of life in the river, making it illuminate in different colors. A bridge over the river ran across the zone.
On the bank of the river, there was an installation using the video mapping technology.
The core of the installation was a model of Astana city. At first, it could not be seen because of the lighting and looked like clear steppe. Then, two Panasonic SXGA+ projectors (12000 ANSI Lm) created an illusion of construction in the steppe, with the model emerging from the surface to show a beautiful modern city. In order to show more of the city, there were three Litemax 28-inch panoramic (16:3) interactive displays installed on the railings that displayed all relevant information.
Back to entertainment. There was a virtual city tour game which was played without a controller. Kinect system and two frontal projection screens enabled you to fly in the virtual city by opening and flapping your arms like wings, perform tasks to find prizes or simply explore the city. You could travel the virtual streets in a group thanks to sufficient space in front of the screen and a sensor detecting motions of a few people. Projection for the game was powered by Panasonic WXGA projectors with the brightness of 6000 ANSI Lm.
Another component of the zone was a holographic cube. The wall had a niche with a real shell from the film. It featured actors who appeared to tell you interesting facts about the history of Kazakhstan and different things related to the narration. Behind the niche, there was Panasonic WXGA projector with a system of mirrors and holographic film.
Streets of Kazakh Cities and Gift Shop
After the tour around the gallery, visitors went to the final zone before the gift shop and exit, a street of Kazakhstan. The main concept of this part of display was to create a sensation of real streets of the youngest capital in the world, Astana.
The floors beneath your feet simulated asphalt with road markings. The street had two sides. One side was a "street-long" screen with four Panasonic soft blending projectors. Each projector had the brightness of 6000 ANSI Lm and resolution of 1280х800 pixels. They showed the video of people passing by or busy doing their own things, some of them waving to visitors. To enhance the presence effect, people were shown in their natural size and the room had snow and soap bubble generators that started automatically as the content required.
The other side of the street — a visitor center — featured a wall of a building with five built-in Litemax 38-inch interactive displays with interactive attachments and an ultra wide aspect ratio of 16:3. Here you could see panoramic views of Astana and other cities of Kazakhstan. In the middle of the street, there were two GestureTek 55-inch interactive tables simulating newspaper and book stands where you could browse digital newspapers.
Finally, there was a post office made of five 40” Full HD touch screen displays with guest books. Visitors could choose a digital postcard, sign it, input their origination and send to any email address, and then see it on a large digital globe — a two-meter inflatable screen with the Pufferfish sphere projection system in the gift shop at the exit. The globe showed all the cities whose residents left messages in the guest book of the pavilion of the Republic of Kazakhstan.