Liquid Galaxy at EarthX Conference
By Dave Jenkins
May 2, 2018
We had the unique opportunity to participate in the EarthX conference held this week in Dallas, Texas. EarthX brings over 100,000 visitors together to hear about environmentalism, recycling, ocean preservation, sustainability tech advances, and how to be good custodians of our Earth.
We set up 3 systems at the conference to give the widest coverage for the wonderful content developed by our partners:
- NOAA showcased new 360 photos from Palmyra Atoll, a tiny dot of land 1000 miles due south of Hawaii in the middle of a National Marine Reserve, along with an incredible 360° video from Christophe Baillache and Sophie Ansel.
- Blue Abyss showcased their new 50-meter deep diving tank soon to be installed in the UK, where they will support training for space travel or run oceanic simulations under very controlled conditions.
- We also showed “Diving with Sylvia”, a VR game built by Cascade Game Foundry for the Oculus Rift. This was tricky, as it involved simultaneous visualizations to both the VR goggles wearer as well as the 7 screens of the Liquid Galaxy.
While at the conference, we attended a wonderful gala with Sylvia Earle, one of the premiere environmental scientists who focuses specifically on oceanic wildlife and how to preserve what she calls “Hope Spots” around the world where biodiversity is especially rich and especially at risk. (Yes, we have a presentation that flies to all these “blue hope” spots.)
Sylvia and other speakers emphasized the need for telling the story of these places, as a good story is key to raising awareness, building consensus around preservation, and leading the way for policy change. This same need of telling a strong environmental message was echoed by our friends at NOAA, the National Marine Sanctuary Organization, and even the President of Palau, a Pacific Island nation who has taken the lead and now preserves 80% of its waters from fishing or exploitation!
Our 3 Liquid Galaxy systems at the conference performed admirably and fulfilled this story-telling mission beautifully. We showed full resolution 360° movies of Palmyra Atoll, multimedia presentations about sustainable housing, and even won the accolades of the conference sponsors who were astounded at the unique immersive experience that a Liquid Galaxy can provide. I personally stood next to our 7-screen system for most of the conference, and often heard variants of “Wow! I saw this same content on my desktop earlier, but this is totally different! Amazing!” Cool.
We now have a wealth of environmental presentations available for our Liquid Galaxy partners should any of them wish to load the content on their own systems. We also now have many many new friends in the environmental movement, and hope to work with them more at future conferences and events.
See more use cases at our Liquid Galaxy website!
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