Visualization theatre at Kia US design center

Kia will soon receive three 4096 X 2160 resolution Sony SXRD projectors producing highly realistic imagery for Detailed Design Reviews!

Mechdyne today announced it has been awarded a contract to install a three-screen visualization system in the KIA America Design Center in Irvine, California.

The Center is part of the Hyundai-Kia America Design and Technical Center, also located in Irvine, California.

The system will be used exclusively for Kia design. Users will often be studying conceptual design sketches which will include both interior and exterior styling imagery.

Kia’s goal is to present high levels of detail of features including such attributes as seat fabric, stitching and pattern details in trim and styling.

With this in mind, the major criterion for the screen image is the resolution, or detail presentation capability.

Mechdyne will provide an ultra-high resolution PLEX theater system that has three side-by-side, nearly seamless screens in an angled, theater-like configuration. The latest generation Sony SXRD projectors will be used to display 8.8 million pixels (4096 x 2160 resolution) on each screen.

The complete system produces a continuous total resolution 26.5 million pixels. Even new HD resolution projection technology would display only 6.2 million pixels across three screens, less than one quarter of this system resolution.

The three screens will allow multiple models to be presented simultaneously, or multiple variations of one model for side by side comparison. Each screen is nine feet by eighteen feet to permit display of the three complete design examples in full-scale 1:1 size. Thus, comparisons can be made between the designs easily and accurately.

Also for ease of comparison of the models, the two outer side screens will turn inward from the plane of the center screen by approximately 40 degrees.

This partial polygon screen configuration produces a large “sweet spot” where up to eight designers seated at a conference table can view each of the screen images with equal clarity and accuracy.

The Design Center projectors and peripheral equipment will be controlled and driven by a PC Cluster. Also, images can be presented from the laptop computers of audience participants. The system has been designed, is being pre-staged and will be installed in January 2008.