Client: The James Hutton Institute
Sector: Research, Science & Innovation

The Brief

The James Hutton Institute appointed AV One Solutions to deliver a pioneering Immersive Visualisation Suite at its Craigiebuckler campus in Aberdeen.As a world-leading research organisation focused on land use, climate, food systems and environmental science, the Institute works with increasingly complex datasets, models and simulations.

It needed more than a conventional presentation or collaboration space; it wanted an environment where researchers could step inside their data, explore it collectively and communicate complex information in a more engaging and accessible way. The brief was to create a flexible, immersive environment capable of supporting scientific visualisation, collaborative research, stakeholder engagement, presentations and public outreach.

Background

The James Hutton Institute carries out research addressing some of the biggest challenges facing society, from climate adaptation and biodiversity to sustainable land use, food security and the transition to net zero. Communicating this work can be challenging. Traditional screens, maps and presentations require audiences to interpret complex datasets and translate them into real-world landscapes and scenarios. The Institute’s vision was to change that. The Immersive Visualisation Suite would form a living laboratory where researchers could bring together complex datasets within one shared environment, explore high-resolution geospatial information, 360° imagery and interactive visualisations and engage everyone from fellow scientists and industry partners to policymakers, schools and local communities.

The Project

AV One designed and delivered a wrap-around immersive visual environment incorporating synchronised Epson laser projectors, advanced 7thSense media serving technology, spatial audio and integrated control systems. One of the biggest technical challenges was the room itself. The projection surface transitions from flat walls into a large curved surface, requiring nine individual projectors to create what appears to the user as one continuous panoramic image.

Achieving this demanded precise projector positioning, image blending, synchronisation, geometry correction and colour and brightness balancing. Low ceiling heights, structural beams, heat and strict acoustic requirements added further complexity. The system also needed to handle very different types of content, from live outputs generated by scientific software and simulations to high-resolution prepared media, while maintaining image quality and synchronisation across the entire immersive display.

The finished environment allows researchers to explore content collaboratively across an eight-metre-wide immersive display, helping turn complex scientific information into something audiences can experience and understand together.

Our Approach

This was never going to be an off-the-shelf AV installation. Working directly with The James Hutton Institute and technology partners 7thSense and Epson, AV One developed and refined a specialist projection and calibration workflow capable of delivering a seamless experience across the suite’s combination of flat and curved surfaces. Extensive testing, recalibration and refinement were required to overcome image distortion, alignment drift, tearing and brightness inconsistencies and ensure all nine projectors operated as one unified visual environment. Just as importantly, the technology had to be accessible.

The suite was designed to support advanced research applications without requiring every user to become an AV specialist. Researchers can move between scientific visualisation, presentations, workshops and immersive demonstrations. This has opened immersive content creation to teams across the Institute. Users can create presentations using familiar platforms such as Canva, publish them as web pages and display them within the suite, significantly reducing the need for specialist media production. The result is a flexible, future-ready environment designed not simply to showcase immersive technology, but to become a practical, everyday tool for research, collaboration and engagement.