Barco has opened a redesigned experience centre at its iconic Barco Campus in Kortrijk, Belgium, highlighting the company’s wide technology offerings and ecosystems.
Inavate experienced a behind-the-scenes tour during the reopening of the redesigned experience centre, exploring Barco’s technology offerings across six ‘pods’ that showcase Barco technologies for various applications and use cases.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was led by An Steegen, CEO, Barco, and Ruth Vandenberghe, mayor of Kortrijk, offering a location to showcase Barco technologies.
The reopening marks the third major overhaul of the experience centre since the Barco Campus opened in 2016, and forms part of Barco’s global networks of more than 15 experience centres and demo hubs.
The reopened experience centre is home to technology zones that focus on individual verticals and technologies, including a discovery pod where visitors can experience Barco’s image processing technology, with demos of the ENCORE3 screen management system, Infinipix LED processor and Nexxis Compute surgical processing capabilities.
Barco also boasts a healthcare pod, highlighting the company’s Coronis OneLook mammography display, digital pathology display, autostereoscopic 3D medical glasses which works without glasses, and Barco’s Brilliant Assistant voice-controlled surgical support that enables camera and system control as well as messaging capabilities.
Moving into Barco’s enterprise pod, visitors can experience the company’s control room systems and ClickShare room systems, highlighting Barco’s established meeting room and videoconferencing offerings.
An immersive experiences pod focuses on creating an immersive show, using 14 laser projectors from the QDX and I600 projector ranges.
Barco also showed off its HDR offering, featuring Lightsteering, to deliver deep blacks and vivid contrast.
Lastly, a residential pod offers a showcase of high-end home cinema environments, using the new Heimdall 4K laser projector.
Visitors also explored Barco’s testing facilities during the unveiling, where products undergo thorough experimentation and testing for real world conditions, with interference tests in an anechoic chamber, as well as vibration tests and climate testing to simulate wear and usage in hot, cold and humid environments.
Barco demonstrated this by freezing a projector, using the melting ice on the projector and lens to simulate use and wear in extensively humid environments by allowing the now-melted water to affect the workings of the projector and lens.
The day concluded with a visit to the Church of Our Lady in Kortrijk, where Barco projectors are discreetly used with mechanised shutters and headphones within the historic church to tell the story of the Battle of the Golden Spurs, where Flemish rebels dealt an unexpected defeat over the royal army of France in 1302. The projection show retells the story within the historic church, minimising the impact of technology to tell a powerful story of resistance and triumph through engaging and modern means.
An Steegen, CEO, Barco, commented: “I’m honoured to open our revamped Experience Center today, and we’re looking forward to welcoming many customers, partners, and audiences from around the world to discover the fresh experiences powered by Barco tech. I’m especially proud of the teamwork that went into this project, so a special thanks to everyone involved.”