Immersive auditorium in university, Morocco

Modulo Kinetic powers an immersive auditorium at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco

During summer 2022, the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) officially inaugurated its Agora, a multi-purpose auditorium part of the Ben Guerir campus in Morocco. The impressive circular room of +800sqm is equipped with a state-of-the-art audiovisual system combining a Samsung curved LED wall and a dome projection based on 24 Christie video-projectors. The immersive setup is powered by a dozen Modulo Kinetic media servers from Modulo Pi.

Inaugurated in 2017 in Ben Guerir, Morocco, the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) continues its expansion with the construction of 31 new buildings. Among them is the Agora, an event space designed to offer an exceptional immersive experience.

The design office Atrait Consulting was consulted to carry out the technical study for weak current for all the UM6P installations. Eric Jondot, its managing Director, explains: “For the Agora room, from the first discussions with the client and the architect, we were asked to create a concept that would be totally innovative and unique. We therefore proposed a completely immersive and unprecedented audiovisual installation.”

The Agora comes in the form of a circular room 32 meters in diameter. On the lower part, a cylindrical LED wall made up of Samsung IFR25 tiles with a pitch of 2.5mm has been installed. The curved screen envelops the room at 311°, corresponding to dimensions of +87 meters long and 2.7 meters high.

The upper part of the room is a dome on which a mapped projection relies on 23 x Crimson HD31 projectors and 1 x Crimson WU31 projector from Christie.

The LED and projection displays are powered by the Modulo Kinetic media server from Modulo Pi. In total, 12 x Modulo Kinetic are installed: 1 x Modulo Kinetic Designer workstation controls 9 x Modulo Kinetic V-Node servers equipped with 6 outputs. The whole system is completed by a backup Kinetic Designer station and a V-Node server.

Modulo Kinetic thus makes it possible to broadcast the show specially created for the Agora by the Pixel N’Pepper studio. Lasting 8 minutes 30, this demo show was designed to take the audience into the different configurations offered by the Agora through 4 sequences: conference, dinner, product launch, and show.

“The Modulo Kinetic servers calculate simultaneously and in real time the rendering and all the data for the broadcasting of the show, which represents 43 HD video streams, i.e. 130 million pixels, but also 54 audio broadcasting points and the synchronized lighting control” comments Éric Jondot.

Modulo Kinetic also served to handle soft edge blending and warping of the projectors’ outputs.

The Agora’s control room has been optimized to ensure easy management and operations during the various events hosted. Control panels have thus been created in Modulo Kinetic and made available to operators in the control room. This way, they can easily access to a set of customizable settings and configurations.

Initiated in 2018, the installation carried out by Axians and Cegelec started in March 2020. The construction site had to be interrupted several times due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Agora finally opened its doors in June 2022.