The National Military Museum in the Netherlands wanted an impressive interactive centrepiece for an extraordinary exhibition on Genghis Khan, his descendants, and their legacy.

It is a major coup for the museum to be able to show the rare collection of priceless treasures from Inner Mongolia, including the original bronze seal of Genghis Khan’s daughter and a precious Yuan dynasty golden saddle. 

With weapons, seals, imperial decrees, clothes and jewellery on display, the exhibition will bring to life one of the best-known figures in world history and track the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire that ruled most of Eurasia throughout the 13th and 14th centuries.

The project team led by Nomad Exhibitions and consisting AV experts, Fusion and creative specialists, ay-pe, wanted to complement these ancient artefacts with the latest AV solutions in the form of an interactive game.  This would engage visitors and demonstrate how tribal warfare was fought at the time of the Mongolian Emperor.

For this they needed a high brightness projector with excellent image quality that would be unobtrusive in the display.

ay-pe designed and developed the game in partnership with New Moon Games. Visitors to museum use an interactive bow to shoot down riders, simulating the tribe warfare that happened within the time of the infamous Mongolian Emperor.

The game is driven by a high performance PC with an Nvidia GTX1080 graphics card. This is then projected onto a two-metre wide screen via the Optoma X605 ProScene projector.

This XGA model produces 6000 ANSI lumens of brightness and has a centre-lens design and three interchangeable lens options including an off-axis short throw lens.  The chassis design incorporates extensive vertical (up to +60%/-20%) and horizontal (+/-10%) lens shift to ensure maximum flexibility.  And its wired remote functionality allows all aspects of the projector to be individually controlled without requiring line-of-sight to the projector. 

ProScene projectors require very little maintenance; have no user serviceable parts inside and no filters that require regular cleaning or replacement. The result is low cost, predictable service cycles, enabling planned down-time to be minimised – perfect for the museum’s requirements.

To make the projector inconspicuous in the exhibition a bespoke metal bracket system was produced and powder-coated to match the frame work. 

A pair of Monacor stereo speakers was connected to the system to create the full immersive experience.

Matt Beastall from Fusion said: “We installed the Optoma X605 with a short throw lens to deliver a tall image within the game play area. By using a small amount of the X605’s generous keystone and lens shift, our image filled the 2m wide screen perfectly.”

As well as more than 200 ancient artefacts linked with Genghis Khan and his descendants and the state-of-the-art game, the exhibition also features immersive graphic novel murals depicting scenes from the history of the Mongols with an atmospheric film soundscape. 

The exhibition ‘Genghis: Rise of the Mongol Khans’ represents a major international collaboration between the National Military Museum, Inner Mongolia Museum and Nomad Exhibitions.

Matt Beastall from Fusion said: “This is such an incredible exhibition with objects that have never before been shown outside China. We had a real responsibility to create an amazing centrepiece.”

Tim Pethick, designer of the exhibition, said: "We wanted to give the European audience an insight into Genghis Khan in a way that hasn't been done before."

Matt added:”The interactive looks realistic and gives an insight into how Mongol warriors would have fought on horseback at that time.  The response from the public has been incredibly positive.”

Yong Ding, researcher of China's Inner Mongolia Museum where all the items on display come from, was glad the exhibition immerses visitors in a gripping way. He said: "Inner Mongolia is a mysterious place with a long history, and via this exhibition we hope to bring a better understanding about the culture and history of Inner Mongolia to the Dutch audience".

ay-pe
With a team of filmmakers, animators, visual-effects artists, illustrators, designers and programmers, ay-pe designs exhibitions, immersive experiences, interactives, films and animation for museums, arts institutions, design agencies and international visitor attractions.
www.ay-pe.com 

New Moon Games
Specialists in virtual reality, augmented reality, mobile applications and game development, NMG brings together game/app design, concept work, animation, development, emerging technology and social media integration.
www.newmoongames.co.uk

Nomad Exhibitions 
Nomad Exhibitions specialises in the design, production and management of engaging and experiential temporary, touring and permanent interpretive exhibitions for museums and cultural venues worldwide.
www.nomadexhibitions.com

The National Military Museum
The National Military Museum (NMM) in Soesterberg, near Utrecht is the leading museum highlighting the role of the armed forces in the Netherlands in the past, present and future. The museum has an impressive collection of aircraft, tanks, armoured vehicles and helicopters. 
www.nmm.nl

Image copyright © Fusion