Projected Spherical Video Displays

Version imprimable

Edinburgh-based company Pufferfish has some fresh ideas about extending the reach of digital signage by taking it off the walls and placing it right in the heart of the action.
 
It specialises in projected spherical video displays called PufferSpheres and has extended a concept, which was originally designed for concert touring and events, to the digital signage arena with the new PufferSphere M display.
 
The M made its debut appearance in front of the industry on the Scala stand at ISE, and certainly proved a talking point with a number of high-profile signage providers getting excited about the new possibilities the displays present.
 
With the displays being someway between digital sculpture and screen, they seem to carry a personality of their own and a certainly know how to draw a crowd. The thinking is that coupled with attractive content and some of the interactive possibilities that the Pufferfish team tell us are coming, the displays will offer added engagement and dwell time.
 
Whilst the small 600mm diameter units are those being aimed at the DS market, this hasn’t stopped some of the larger show pieces being deployed by major brands in their out of home marketing campaigns. Most recently Symantec deployed two 3m PufferSphere XXL displays simultaneously in London’s Westfield shopping centre and Grand Central Station New York to promote the launch of their Cyber Crime Index.
 
The projection-based displays employ high quality installation projectors from a range of manufacturers including Projection Design, Christie, Barco, Sanyo and Eiki. The PufferSphere M digital signage solution packs a minimum of 7,500 lumens brightness, with the Projection Design F32 models offering a healthy 8,000 lumens.
 
The displays project at SXGA+ resolution, giving over 1 million pixels across the surface of the sphere. Pufferfish’s SuperUmami optics assure sharp, clear video and true colours, with outstanding pixel distribution across the entire sphere. Having a single projector with an integrated optics system removes the need for projector-tracking, edge-blending and warping envelopes and eliminates the risk of decalibration and loss of focus during operation.
 
Whether the smaller M units with their specialist acrylic screens, or the larger air-inflated event-focused XL and XXL displays, the PufferSpheres all ship in easily transportable rapid-rig cases, which serve to keep technical teams happy by facilitating quick set-up and strike. They are equally at home as permanent or temporary items, opening up applications beyond the fixed installation to the temporary, experiential and event markets.
 
There are as many ways to get content onto the PufferSphere as there are ways to use the product to engage with audiences. The company’s background in the stage show and event worlds has bred a desire to keep content development options as wide as possible, allowing motion designers, lighting designers and other professionals the flexibility to build content within their standard workflows. As it opens up its displays to the digital signage markets, Pufferfish is continuing this spirit of openness and is keen to work with all comers to develop solutions that fit its client’s needs and existing infrastructure.
 
The company is already in discussion with Scala, Dise and others, whilst the development of stock libraries of spherical specific content will ensure that there is rich resource to draw on and integrate with, for clients looking to keep their displays fresh and engaging. A similar path will be opened for interactive developers to bring their ideas and skill sets to bear on the medium. With the back-office experiments being conducted in partnership with companies such as Earthware – a freaky eyeball that tracks you via Kinect – drawing close to half a million hits on youtube and syndication to tech blogs world wide, it is clear that there is a massive audience out there only too willing to be engaged by the possibilities offered by the technology.