Illuminarium Experiences, in partnership with Toronto-based Secret Location, has opened its first Canadian location in Toronto’s Distillery Historic District.
Illuminarium at The Distillery District places guests in the story and allows them to see, hear, feel, and affect the space around them. The opening party featured two immersive shows: “SPACE: A Journey to the Moon and Beyond”, and “WAKING WONDERLAND”.
Six Christie® M 4K25 RGB pure laser projectors help to set the stage for guests as they enter Illuminarium, lighting up the pre-show experience with a combined 150,000 lumens, while twenty Christie Griffyn® 4K35-RGB pure laser projectors installed in the main space fully immerse guests in “SPACE: A Journey to the Moon and Beyond” and “WAKING WONDERLAND”.
In SPACE: A Journey to the Moon and Beyond
Illuminarium’s high-tech animation systems and 360-degree cinematic immersive screens provide a mind-blowing journey through our solar system, where guests will experience what it’s like to walk on the surface of the Moon.
The exhibition includes interactive and visually stunning imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest and most groundbreaking telescope ever built.
Beyond being immersed in the extraordinary images that the JWST sent back to earth, Illuminarium guests see first-hand the dramatic unfurling and deployment of the JWST in deep space — how a telescope the size of a football field that was crammed into a rocket less than 30 feet in diameter came to life.
Guests experience what it was like to blast off in a rocket and land on the Moon, travel to gas giants dominating the outer regions, then to the distant and remote ice worlds and comets of the Kuiper Belt, and finally to the celestial beauty of the stellar Nebula beyond.
Key Features:
- Countdown to “Takeoff” into Space with a rocket
- Travel around the Solar System to four unique areas
- Step and watch as visitors leave footprints on the Moon
- Jump on meteors and watch them explode
- Driven by an unprecedented blend of technology, including 4K RGB pure laser projection, 3-D audio, LIDAR based interactivity
- Strobe effects, immersive sound, and realistic & responsive projection are part of the show
Waking Wonderland
WAKING WONDERLAND picks up three generations after the original Alice and Wonderland has been dormant. The main character is Anna, Alice’s granddaughter, and guests discover she is on a quest to awaken a slumbering world and bring back the magic to Wonderland.
As visitors arrive in the first room of the immersive environment, they discover they are magically transported into the drawing room where they first meet Anna and take on an active role to help Anna search for Wonderland. Visitors are asked to touch, search, smell, and play with a range of surreal settings and colorful characters.
They soon find out that today is special as they catch a glimpse of The White Rabbit, a character that has been lost for many decades. As The White Rabbit discovers that Alice is gone, he asks his new friends to help him save Wonderland as it has been sleeping since Alice’s last visit. With a stroke of luck, Anna and visitors enter the Looking Glass and they get ready to embark on a wonderful adventure to help wake up a sleeping land.
Through motion tracking and spatial audio soundscapes, visitors are transported into a magical forest where they are told to trust the Cheshire Cat Guidebook as he hopes that Anna can be the one to save Wonderland. On their adventure visitors are transported through unique lands, encounter the Mad Hatter in his chaotic tea factory, come face-to-face with the Queen of Hearts in her throne room and meet new characters in their quest.
Key Features:
- 7.2 Million Real-Time frames in the experience
- 1834 Mushrooms in the interactive Mushroom Forest
- 30+ Unique Interactions across the entire experience
- 138 White Rabbits found hidden across each world
- Audiences are encouraged to use their bodies and movement to interact with the space
Created by worldwide leaders in cinematic and interactive content, architectural and theatrical design, and venue operations, Illuminarium at The Distillery District is a permanent entertainment venue offering wholly unique experiences. In essence, Illuminarium exemplifies a “Virtual Reality, without the glasses” type of experience.
KEY TECHNOLOGIES
The unique immersive experiences are powered by an unprecedented blend of technology like cutting-edge projection, virtual reality, and augmented reality, allowing people to cross the threshold from reality into fantasy to engage in an experience that feels otherworldly.
- Hyperrealistic and responsive visuals are delivered by six Christie® M 4K25 RGB projectors and 20 Christie Griffyn® 4K35-RGB projectors
- The projectors are equipped with built-in Christie Twist™ warping and blending software for multi-projector arrays. Twist allows users to more easily map pixels onto a projection surface and maintain proper geometry and pixel-to-pixel alignment.
- Christie’s TruLife+™ electronics platform eliminates the need for option cards – all the connections are built-in. TruLife+ features Electronic Color Convergence (ECC), which allows users to adjust the red, green, or blue individually via remote.
- High frame rate (HFR) capabilities mean that the projectors can achieve 120 Hz at 4K resolution or up to 480 Hz at 2K resolution.
- Both projectors feature best-in-class efficiency, with market-leading BTU/hour for operational cost savings of up to 31% per year over the leading competitive model.
- 360-degree cinematic screens
- LIDAR sensors blanket the space for interactivity
- Over 100 speakers immerse guests in 3D digital sound
- The latest video game engines allow guests to feel like they are inside a game or film
Partners
Secret Location