Elmia, a leading convention centre in the Nordic region, has become the first venue of its kind to be equipped with Digital Projection’s advanced Satellite MLS projection system.
Located in Jönköping, in southern Sweden, Elmia comprises four large exhibition halls and several smaller spaces spread across a 34,000 sq m site.
In addition to hosting trade shows, conferences, and exhibitions, Elmia doubles as a concert and live event venue, as well as being home to the long-running esports and gaming festival DreamHack.
Elmia has a long history with Austman Consulting, so when it came time to upgrade its projection system, the venue again sought the services of the Sävedalen-based AV specialist, explained Mats Persson, Austman’s business development manager.
“We have a long-term relationship with the client and are involved in all of their image-related projects,” he said. Recalling the brief from Elmia, he added: “The customer asked for an optimal solution with high image quality and a system that would work for a long time.”
Lars Persson, chief information officer of Elmia, explained that the greatest challenge for Austman was the limited space in which to install the chosen projector.
“In all our environments – from Hammarskjöldsalen, which holds 1,100 people to Rydbergsalen, which has a capacity of 300 – the control rooms are quite small, and a large projector produces a lot of heat, meaning it’s difficult for technicians to sit there. This compromises the working environment,” he said.
“Digital Projection has a good solution for this: placing the projector head in the control room and the light sources in a different room, thus removing the problem of heat and noise. This also lowers the projection room temperature by 10°C and improves the working environment.”
The solution in question is Digital Projection’s Satellite Modular Laser System (MLS). By separating the noisy, heat-producing light sources – rack-mounted in standard 4U modules in an adjacent room – from the projector ‘head’ in the control room, Satellite MLS offers the installer true flexibility, especially where space and access are restricted.
“We saved money on not having to rebuild our control room by rack-mounting the projector in an adjacent room,” confirmed Lars Persson.
“It would have been a major expense for us, particularly because we didn’t want to reduce seating capacity either. It is a great solution for us to have the projector head separated from the control room.”
At Elmia, the projector head is installed behind a hole in the back wall in Rydbergsalen and outputs a 6m-wide image at a distance of 22m.
The Satellite Modular Laser System is paired with a TITAN projector head, chosen for its balance of brightness and affordability, according to Austman’s Mats Persson.
With the TITAN head, peak brightness is 30,000 lumens, although Elmia is currently only making use of two-thirds of that capacity, futureproofing its investment in Satellite MLS.
“We currently use 20,000 lumens, which is more than enough for our needs,” commented Lars Persson. “But you never know, we might need to move it to another place at some point in future that requires more brightness.”
Given the high expectations of Elmia’s customers, Digital Projection was the only choice for the installation, added Mats Persson. “As the customer’s business consists of renting out meeting rooms, and their customers expect an optimal visual experience, it was natural to use TITAN and Satellite MLS,” he concluded.
“We are the first convention centre in the Nordics with Digital Projection’s Satellite MLS system, and we have it because our customers demand the best quality,” added Mats Persson. “With this projector from Digital Projection, we see a huge difference in brightness, light quality and colour rendering. It’s a completely different level of projector.”
