Frenchman Camille Terrasse, German Otto Sonnenberg and Brit William Rhodes are just three of the 424 people who fell on 28 November 1914, today exactly 100 years ago, during the First World War. The names of all 424 casualties who died that day are projected onto a wall in the much-visited In Flanders Fields Museum (IFFM) in Ypres, using two Barco F22 projectors. In total, Since its refurbishment in 2012, twelve Barco projectors help the IFFM to fully immerse visitors into the story of the Great War.

Enhancing the visitor experience 
When renovating the IFFM in 2012, the curators resolutely chose a narrative approach and interactive technology to enhance the visitor experience. Museum system integrator Ocular won the tender for the audiovisual equipment. “Image quality, reliability, durability and future-proofedness were key for the customer,” said Nicolas Vanden Avenne, Ocular’s Managing Director. “Moreover, as every projection in the museum is a technical challenge, we really needed a visualization partner who could help us engineer the complex projections.” The Barco projectiondesign range met all the requirements. 

One Barco F35 and nine Barco F32 projectors help the IFFM retell the story of the Great War. Since 6 August 2014, two extra F22s have enabled the projection of the Name List, i.e. the names of the 600,000 war victims.

450,000 visitors in 2014 
By 1 January 2015, the IFFM estimates to have welcomed ca. 450,000 people, just over the past year. “Our visitors are really thrilled with the museum experience and that is largely due to the techniques we’ve chosen to present it,” Chielens concluded.