Illuminarium may be the cure for wanderlust for those more bound by budget and circumstances.
Executive V.P. of Technology and Content, Brian Allen, calls it the “democratization of the world’s most extraordinary experiences” when he describes Illuminarium. Illuminarium features a fully digital sensory experience placing viewers in the wilds of Africa surrounded by exotic animals in their natural habitats and panoramas of the African landscape. Allen says future cinematic experiences like a trip to outer space and XXX are in the queue. Its physical bones located in Atlanta consist of a large, converted warehouse equipped with state-of-the-art projectors and audio equipment that cast imagery 360 degrees around the viewer as well as on the ceiling and floor with coordinating surround sound. Beyond sight and sound, haptics in the floor creates tactile sensation that allow participants to feel what might be happening on the screen like a herd of elephants running through the African plains. “At our core, we are a communal experience. So, you don’t have to put on any goggles or wear a computer on your back. You can walk into our space, and we are fully projection mapped with 22-foot high walls, and complete mapping on the floors as well. We really aim to transport our audiences to a different place on earth or someplace off of earth that we dream up,” explains Allen.

Evolve’s new LONG TERM LEASE PROGRAM was born as a result of the new partnership with Illuminarium, allowing creators to preserve capital and instead apply it to creating content and developing additional venues rather than paying for expensive equipment up front. Pioneering a project of this magnitude and scope meant securing the most technologically sophisticated
equipment. Allen ended up consulting Panasonic in search of a what he calls a holistic solution for leasing the biggest ticket items needed to execute the Illuminarium concept. It was Panasonic that introduced Allen to Evolve Technologies which up to this time either sold equipment or rented for the short term. Evolve’s new Long Term Lease Program was born as a result of the new partnership with Illuminarium, allowing creators to preserve capital and instead apply it to creating content and developing additional venues rather than paying for expensive equipment up front.

“I was very excited to be a part of a project of
this magnitude,” says Brian Macauto a 20-year
veteran in the AV field who was brought in by
Evolve to handle and manage the huge
Illuminarium installation to work in tandem
with Illuminarium’s Brian Allen.
“Evolve has a lot of extensive experience with
extremely high-end video equipment not to just
rent it to a customer as a box that they take
over, but also we do training on the projectors
and Disguise media servers and all the other
equipment in the Evolve line up. We have a
technical team of experts who have a deep
understanding of this technology and how its
implemented in solutions like this,” explains
Macauto.

Evolve’s Long Term Lease Solves the Issue of EQUIPMENT OBSOLESCENCE
Because of the enormity and
complexity of the project and
installation, Evolve placed
Macauto right on sight at
Illuminarium to ensure the
equipment installation went
smoothly.
“The reason Evolve has been so important in the
process is because they’re here and sharing the
lab with us. We have immediate access if anything
comes up with any number of pieces of
equipment. There’s a lot of knowledge that Evolve
brings to the table that really helped us along the
way in terms of solving a lot of challenges on site,”
says Allen who explains that there are 130 million
pixels active in any given moment on the surfaces
inside the warehouse.
While Evolve’s new Long Term Lease program
allowed capital allocation to go to content rather
than equipment, it also solved the problem of
rapid equipment obsolescence.

Evolve Provides the HOLISTIC APPROACH Illuminarium Was Looking for
“Without the leasing option, this project would have been possible but just not as
easy. If you buy equipment, you’re on the hook for projectors four years from now
on that don’t necessarily cut it anymore or need to be replaced or are breaking
down for whatever reason. We’d rather be on a leasing model so that we can have
that kind of maintenance support. Also, after the lease is up, we can upgrade and
refresh the technology to keep the venue upgraded,” says Allen.
Macauto adds, “They needed a large variety of top-of-the-line laser projectors from
Panasonic and a lot of Disguise hardware which are media servers to drive the
content to those projectors. Because we only want to work with the top end
technology, we make sure that the solution we’re offering to a customer is not
going to be hindered by sub-par systems. When we’re working with Panasonic laser
projectors, we know that we’re offering the brightest most reliable projectors for
the customer’s specific needs.”

Evolve Committed to the Journey as Illuminarium Expands.
Allen enthusiastically recommends Evolve
Technologies to other companies looking for high
end equipment to either buy, rent, or lease for the
long term because of the combination of products
and services they offer to ensure optimum
success.
“I think it’s really important to have both have that
educational side of things, the service side of
things, as well as the actual equipment to backup
all of that up,” says Allen referring to the
equipment training and instruction that Evolve
offers alongside it’s sales/lease and service.
“We have a technical team of experts who have a
deep understanding of this technology and how
it’s implemented in solutions like this. So, we are in
a very unique position to not only supply the
equipment but also support the customer
technically, pre and post installation. We go out of
our way, bending over backward, to support the
customer with whatever they need to make sure
their installation runs smoothly,” adds Macauto.
Already Illuminarium founders have publicly
announced three new locations for this sensory
extravaganza in Miami, Las Vegas, and Chicago.

“We go out of our way,
bending over backward, to
support the customer with
whatever they need to make
sure their installation runs
smoothly.”
Brian Macauto,
Evolve Director of Technology

EVOLVE LIVE LEASE Growth is exciting when you have support from
“Right now, when you’re walking through the venue you can trigger
experiences like leaving footprints behind you or splashing in a puddle. In the
future, we’re looking at more gestural interactions where we can have shows
that are running completely in real time, where you’re walking up to one of our
media surfaces and actually affecting what you’re seeing on the wall or the
floor,” explains Allen.
In the next five to seven years, plans are for the development of dozens of
Illuminariums all over the world specifically in the Asia Pacific region as well as
in cities all around the U.S.
With Evolve’s Live Lease Program, execution of this
massive expansion is well within reach.
Says Evolve’s Macauto, “I’m really excited to be a part of such a
forward-thinking attraction that uses cutting-edge technology to produce a
fun, themed attraction.”