How the Science Museum Partnered with Matrox Video to Modernize its Iconic Space Gallery

In 2024, the museum made the decision to redesign and relocate its existing ‘Science on a Sphere’ exhibit into the new Space gallery. This posed several technical challenges, including the need to house existing media servers, which had previously been concealed behind a wall and were in a location ill-suited for maintenance. In addition, that configuration was not possible in the new space, so the museum needed to relocate the servers to a bespoke, climate-controlled comms room at the other end of the building.

To deliver creative AV experiences for visitors, the exhibit would need to integrate four projectors to create a seamless image on a floating sphere. Any new setup had to keep all four video streams perfectly in sync over IP, while also preserving image quality so visitors would not see stutter, drift, or misalignment as the sphere rotated.

Another key part of the project specification was a decision to migrate the underlying digital infrastructure to AV over IP, while staying within the museum’s existing network capacity. This needed a solution that could deliver synchronization and quality without requiring a high-bandwidth SMPTE 2110 network. Overall, the objective was to deliver a system with the performance and reliability required to support a “gold star” flagship exhibit.

Following a thorough evaluation process, the museum selected Matrox Convert IP encoders/decoders using IPMX over its standard IT network. This high-performance synchronization platform allows AV sources and displays to be located in different parts of a building while still behaving as if they were directly connected. 

IPMX was selected because it met the museum’s technical requirements without requiring a high-bandwidth SMPTE ST 2110 network, enabling it to operate within the museum's existing network capacity rather than requiring a major upgrade.

To display the imagery, Panasonic projectors with Matrox ConvertIP SDM modules were used, integrating IP decoding directly into the displays. The media servers were moved to a climate-controlled comms room at the other end of the building, and four video streams were compressed, transported over the IP network, and decoded in the projectors via ConvertIP SDM, rather than being generated locally in the gallery.

The design and implementation process was supported by a 12-month proof-of-concept and stress testing exercise, during which Matrox Video worked closely with the museum to refine the system before final deployment. 

Described by Time Out as a “must see,” in the Space gallery visitors can fully immerse themselves in the content without being distracted by technical issues such as stutter or latency. As planned from the outset, the technology effectively “disappears”, allowing the focus to remain on the science and storytelling displayed on the sphere.

The museum’s technical team can now operate and support the exhibit more easily and reliably from elsewhere in the building, having been freed from the restrictions of the legacy infrastructure. By using less hardware, the museum has reduced potential points of failure, thanks to the use of the ConvertIP SDM modules integrated into the projectors. Image quality is maintained despite compression and network transport, enabling smooth rotation of the sphere without visible drift or glitches.