Press Room

VR Collaborative Engineering Facility at Boeing, Long Beach Targets C-130 Modernization


(l-r): Bill Moorefield, HW Program Mgr.; Lance Varner, HW IPT Mgr. and Craig Hjorth, CAD/CAM Engineering Services Project Manager, at work in the Boeing, Long Beach VR Theater

Panoram Technologies, in partnership with Hewlett-Packard, has installed and equipped what Boeing personnel refer to as their "virtual reality theater" at the Long Beach facility. The center, a collaborative engineering and design room, is an environment within which project team members can "see more, understand better and decide quicker," Panoram's axiom for the company's technology.

Design engineers at work on Boeing's C-130 Avionics Modernization Program are able to collaborate as never before in the VR Theater, using Panoram products in combination with the powerful HP sv6 graphics computer. In addition to reviewing and adjusting their designs in real time without "going back to the drawing board," engineers are able to actually see and compare all of the airplane's previous
configurations at once, address their redesign efforts, and make decisions together.

Panoram's PanoWall™, a 10'x30' 3.5 million pixel rear projection display, is the centerpiece of the specially designed room, positioned at the front of an auditorium-type setting. Four computer work stations line the sides of the room, and projection controls are located at the rear. The PanoWall™ features not only Video Panoram®, the company's patented edge blending technology, and the Integrator™ system control, but a surround sound audio system that enables all collaborating personnel to hear one another while they work.

The HP sv6 delivers not only an unprecedented combination of photo-realistic image quality but also scalable performance, allowing designers and engineers to review complete digital mock-ups in real time. Introduced in August, 2001 as the first commercially available, massively scalable visualization architecture, the sv6 is designed to support customers' needs for interactive visualization of large, complex data sets.

For more information, contact Cal Leuning, director of government business at Panoram, (818)504-0714, X118, or Pat Duba, HP sv6 Marketing, (970)898-0390.