Volvo Group Truck Technology – Advanced Technology and Research, researching in the transport and automotive industries and in need of an updated visualization tool, planned in 2008 to upgrade their virtual reality studio. The studio’s acrylic projection screen was to be replaced by a wide 4K projection area to visualize research material and by an adjacent HD projection area to use with Volvo’s driving simulator.

 

As it was decided that a 5m * 2.6m wide and a 2.5m * 2.6m wide glass screen would be installed, NANCO’s challenge was to get the 300kg – 500kg heavy glass screens into the VR-studio. Not only had the studio a 25 cm installation floor, but the only way in was passed two conference rooms, both carpeted wall-to-wall and passed a fixed conference table which had left no space to maneuver.

 

The solution

The solution is not an everyday solution, as the title suggests. Who would get to drive a crane truck into Volvo’s buildings?

Unlikely as it sounds, it is exactly what NANCO did!

A crane truck with a 30m extendable boom lifted one transportation box at a time from the flatbed of the truck through one of the large doors into the first conference room.

As a 4K projector normally requires a total space of approx. 5m, a depth that is usually not available, NANCO typically uses a reflecting mirror to decrease the projection distance. As the adjacent server room in this site was opened up for the projector, the required distance was made available and no mirrors had to be used.

Usually the projection screen is mounted into a frame in a wall, which absorbs the noise produced by the projector’s fan. At this site there was no wall. But by placing the projector into the server room this issue was solved automatically.

Still there was no wall to mount the frame and screen into as the previous screen had been held by a mechanical construction. Using truss Volvo had, converting, and rebuilding them, NANCO built the  construction while a specialized glaziery built a frame to mount into the truss.

The outcome

Volvo Group Advanced Technology & Research has now two adjacent powerwalls, one 4K 5m * 2.6m wide and one HD 2.5m * 2.6m wide, allowing the simultaneous visualization of 20 different image sources and having up to 20 access points for additional workstations.