Following the success of the inaugural BBC Earth Experience in London, which opened in March, the attraction has been faithfully reproduced in Melbourne, with the footprint of the London set-up identically recreated inside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Produced in partnership with Moon Eye Productions, Live Nation and BBC Studios, the Experience opened in October and features eight rooms of digital art, with visitors taken on a journey through the natural world which showcases the diversity of the seven continents on an epic scale, all narrated by David Attenborough.
The attraction provides an unparalleled immersive experience, allowing visitors to embark on a 360-degree audio-visual exploration of Earth’s diverse ecosystems. All achieved through dynamic multi-angle screens, deploying the latest digital screen technology to project both new and existing footage from the BBC series ‘Seven Worlds, One Planet’.
While the experience’s layout in Melbourne is the same as the 1608 sq m venue assembled in London, some of the technology used is vastly different. Strikingly, the Melbourne chapter introduces a twist in the core technological tale.
TDC, a leading supplier of video technology and production in Australia, has adopted an innovative, cost-efficient HIVE media server solution for the project.
Spearheaded by TDC Managing Director Michael Hassett, the move puts HIVE in the spotlight as its new product Beeblade – a revolutionary, compact media engine that integrates seamlessly into video projectors and display technology via an Intel SDM (Smart Display Module) slot – is providing the backbone of the digital playback system.
The Melbourne experience boasts 70 Panasonic projectors, with 55 creating the main immersive space. Here, 49 projectors are empowered by the industry first, Beeblade, while the remaining six projectors are complemented with 4K clarity via the HIVE Beebox – a sibling to the Beeblade engines.
The BeeBox provides a chassis for projectors and devices that do not have an SDM card slot. These innovations not only pack a powerful punch in performance but also signify a leap in energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
“Having accepted our proposal for using HIVE media servers, Moon Eye Productions brought us in to provide the media engines for this project,” explained Hassett. “We took a great deal of responsibility for that delivery, especially because the HIVE product was not well known to them, given that different media solutions had been used in London.”
Hassett’s discovery of HIVE, initially from industry whispers and further impressed by their involvement in London’s Frameless project, has led to a synergy and understanding of the simplicity and sophistication of the Beeblade solution. The direct integration with projectors eliminates the need for extensive cabling, reduces both energy usage and project budgets, and ushers in an era of eco-conscious technology.
“The SDM technology was something that really interested me,” said Hassett. “I had heard of some development of this, and then when I learned that Panasonic had integrated an SDM slot into some of their projector models – this led me back to looking at HIVE as the product for this BBC Earth Experience project.
“The Beeblade and Beebox don’t just represent technological advancements; they are harbingers of a new, greener, and more efficient era in digital art installations. This transformative approach is not just a disruption in the media server space; it’s an evolutionary leap, saving time, money, and the planet.”
Michael Hassett, TDC Managing Director
Hassett’s growing confidence in this technical innovation underscores its potential to redefine future projects for them, and their clients.
“The price point is also very favourable,” he continued, “and while the HIVE products might not have the ‘bells and whistles’ offered by other solutions – for this and other projects, we don’t always need them. It sometimes just requires good, reliable, high resolution playback.”
The HIVE products were sold to Moon Eye Productions and then installed directly into the projectors at Panasonic Europe’s facility in Wiesbaden, Germany. From there, they were delivered to Melbourne for installation, which was undertaken by Faber Audiovisuals.
Because it was a new media server system for the project, and the leap of faith to use HIVE was quite large, Hive’s team were directly involved throughout, and worked alongside Moon Eye, Panasonic and TDC, as Mark Calvert, one of HIVE’s co-founders, explained:
“When we got involved in the project, we soon realised that HIVE, Moon Eye Productions and the key stakeholders are all based in Europe, so we agreed to build a scale model of the project in our Horsham office,” he said.
“This helped connect all the teams involved, the technology, and the reality of what we wanted to achieve, as it built a real connection with the physicality of the project, rather than only pre-visualising it in often forgiving software.”
This setup also allowed members of the TDC commissioning team to log in remotely and operate the HIVE system via Team Viewer. Providing a great environment to train and upskill their team during the pre-production phase.
From a technical playback perspective, the content stored locally on each Beeblade and Beebox device is delivered using Hive proprietary BeeSync software, which synchronises the HDMI clock over all connected devices.
“This software has been developed exclusively by HIVE, and is the essential backbone to the success of the project, and the perfect synchronisation of all imagery displayed,” said Calvert.
The Beeblade and Beebox represent a significant development in the media server realm, and Calvert reflects with thanks on Panasonic’s role in helping them realise their compatibility with SDM technology.
“We have a good, long-term relationship with Panasonic Europe as they helped us with the development of the Beeblade, working alongside Intel who developed the SDM slot,” he said. “With the need for a huge cable network now removed for this type of project, it helps from an energy saving point of view, as HIVE are trying to align the company with an ethos of shifting to offer as environmentally friendly solutions as possible.”
Tony Molloy, European Sales Manager at Panasonic Business Europe, who oversaw the sale of the projectors for the project, said: “We realised that in immersive installations such as this, having a system where you can combine the projectors and media servers together in the same location saves the costs from an installation perspective, and so it is quite a unique development for this industry.
“The customer chose Panasonic’s 3-chip DLP technology for this application, with its durability a major selling point in addition to image quality and the overall impression for the end user.”
For Hassett and TDC, their role continues after integration to ensure that the servers maintain their performance. “It’s been a big leap of faith, but as the integration went on, I felt more confident in the products every day,” he said. “The products are so good that I have full confidence, and have even now invested further to use HIVE on future projects that we are now working on.”
Calvert concluded: “This is a new approach to media servers and while it is intentionally disruptive to the market it is rightfully becoming very popular. The system is easy to use, quick to assemble – because it’s integrated into the projector – and the solution has saved the project significant capital.
“The BBC Earth Experience in Melbourne isn’t just another attraction; it’s a revolutionary landmark in digital storytelling. By marrying breath-taking art with ground-breaking technology, it opens a window to a world where nature’s story is told not just through words, but through an immersive, vivid, and unforgettable experience.
“This isn’t just a success story for TDC, HIVE, or Moon Eye Productions – it’s a bold new chapter in how we approach immersive experiences today and into the future.”