Nanco » AstraZeneca

The challenge

As a comment to the subtitle ”The challenge”, one can easily state that the entire 2020 has been a challenge and that probably none of us ever will remember the year of the worldwide corona pandemic as an uncomplicated year.

But here we are in 2018-2019 and still oblivious to what is about to hit the world. AstraZeneca’s R & D centre, that previously moved from Lund in the south of Sweden to Gothenburg, built in 2018 extra storeys specifically dedicated to research. The company envisioned two 3D-rooms where researchers could understand molecules by interacting with molecular models in 3D.

NANCO, who already in early 2000 had installed a 3D-projector and 3D-glasses in Lund and subsequently moved the setup to Gothenburg, was entrusted to install both rooms. With hindsight and the oncoming circumstances of endangered world health in mind, the more opportune the installation at this biomedical company, where vital research and clinical testing lead to the development of much needed medicine, seems to be.

The solution

Both 3D-rooms were quite straightforward to install:

Large room (5.7m*4.5m)

Projection schematics large room © NANCO

NANCO installed first the larger room in the autumn of 2019.

As the only entrance to the room was a regular standard door and a mounted screen wouldn’t fit through it, the screen had to be built inside the room. After emptying the entire room, the rolled-up projection screen, delivered in a 5 m long heavy duty cardboard box, was mounted into its fixed frame. To build the 5.3m*1.7m large aluminum frame and to stretch, tighten and fixate the almost equally large screen (5.1m*1.5m) on the frame in a room that wasn’t much larger (5.7m*4.5m) and all the while the screen wasn’t to be touched, was a challenge. Two front-projection projectors were installed: one to project the AstraZeneca workstation for molecular modeling, using 3D-glasses for viewing, and one to parallelly display laptop presentations; both projectors being remote-controlled by a POE (Power over Ethernet) control system.

Rendering of large room © NANCO

Small room (4m*3.4m)

Projection schematics small room © NANCO

The second and smaller room, was planned to be installed in March 2020, just as the corona pandemic went worldwide putting everything on hold. By June 2020, it was decided that the installation would be implemented under strict corona restrictions and following AstraZeneca’s thorough safety requirements.

This installation was similar to the previous one. NANCO built the smaller screen (2.7m*1.6m) onto its frame (2.9m*1.8m) in a proportionally larger room and then installed it into place together with one projector remote-controlled by a POE control system – and 3D-glasses. This smaller setup allows only one projection source at a time, displaying either the AstraZeneca workstation or a laptop presentation.

Rendering of small room © NANCO

The outcome

Two 3D-rooms, one large for parallell projection of 3D-molecular models and presentations and one smaller room alternately displaying one of these sources.

Industry

Research

Challenge

small entry to 3D-room
small rooms in proportion to frame/screen size
corona pandemic

Solution

building large screen frame and fixating roll-up screen on the frame inside 3D-room
building smaller screen frame and fixating roll-up screen on the frame in a larger room
following corona restrictions and safety requirements

Outcome

2 front-projection projectors for parallell projection of 3D-molecular models and presentation
1 front-projection projector for alternate projection of 3D-molecular models or presentation
3D-glasses for viewing molecular models
POE control system

NANCO solutions

AstraZeneca Gothenburg, Sweden

Molecular modeling in 3D

The challenge

The solution

The outcome

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