Panasonic Projector & Display Corporation, a leading audiovisual technology provider, and HIVE have helped to create a highly ambitious immersive museum experience at the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ).
Over 170 HIVE media engines operate 128 Panasonic 20,000-lumen 4K projectors across multiple large-scale projection areas. The system processes over 21 billion pixels of visual content each second, illustrating Qatar's history, culture, and future goals through immersive storytelling.
Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, the National Museum of Qatar features distinctive desert rose-inspired architecture and offers an engaging visitor experience.
The National Museum of Qatar tells the nation's story within a distinctive building by Jean NouvelImage © Antonio Pagano
Its galleries integrate cinematic projections, artefacts, and thoughtful exhibition design to lead visitors through Qatar's history, from prehistoric times and early settlements to the country's modern evolution and future ambitions.
In collaboration with Secuoya QFC & BGL audiovisual, this installation is among the largest HIVE deployments, featuring 172 Beeblade media engines that support projection mapping and synchronised playback across ten galleries.
To showcase Qatar's history and culture, the museum is also upgrading all 128 Panasonic projectors to the latest PT-RQ25K 4K DLP laser models, each containing HIVE’s embedded technology through the SDM slot.
This setup removes the need for external media servers and reduces cabling, thereby cutting installation costs and minimising potential points of failure.
The right solution for a complex project
Pedro Jiménez Train, operations manager at Secuoya QFC & BGL audiovisual, says: "HIVE's media servers proved to be an outstanding solution for a project of this scale and complexity.
"The platform is intuitive to operate, integrates seamlessly with the wider AV architecture and delivered significant rack space and installation efficiencies.
"What stood out most was HIVE's collaborative, solutions-driven approach. Large-scale permanent projection environments inevitably present technical challenges, and the team consistently worked alongside us to find practical and reliable solutions throughout the project."
The core system features a distributed playback setup with 150 Beeblade Pluto media engines, 30 Beeblade Minima media engines, and 14 Beehive enclosures. This setup supports 8K 10-bit HEVC playback, projection mapping, and comprehensive site scheduling for synchronised content delivery throughout the museum's immersive galleries.
The National Museum of Qatar has updated its projector technology, choosing the latest Panasonic PT-RQ25K 4K DLP laser models for immersive visualsImage © Antonio Pagano
VIOSO software handles projection alignment and blending, while HIVE's platform offers centralised monitoring, reporting, and control to streamline long-term operation.
The museum's immersive galleries will feature 128 Panasonic PT-RQ25K 3-Chip 4K projectors, casting cinematic images onto intricate curved surfaces and exhibition spaces.
Capable of 20,000 lumens, the PT-RQ25K nearly doubles the brightness of the outgoing PT-RQ13K projectors being replaced. This extra power allows the museum to run the projectors at lower brightness settings while still preserving the image quality.
Combining technology and storytelling
“When the museum opened in 2019, immersive cultural attractions were still relatively rare,” says Anthony Molloy, division head for MEA at Panasonic Projector & Display.
“Today, immersive experiences are commonplace, but the National Museum of Qatar remains one of the pioneering examples of how technology and storytelling can be combined at scale.
"Specifically, the upgrade to PT-RQ25K projectors provides significantly greater brightness than the projectors it is replacing. This improves energy efficiency, reduces operational demands and helps extend the lifespan of the installation.
"Combined with HIVE's distributed media architecture, which simplifies content management, monitoring and control across the entire site, the result is a highly efficient and future-ready platform for immersive storytelling.”
Unlike many projection-mapped attractions, this one allows visitors to approach the projected surfaces directly, which requires high image quality and system performance.
Filmed specifically for DLP content, these films, primarily shot in 8K using multi-rig camera systems, are projected onto dynamically curved gallery walls and architectural surfaces at a large scale, seamlessly integrating architecture, content, and storytelling.
The deployment demonstrates how advanced media server technology can manage large-scale immersive setups while simplifying installation, operation, and ongoing maintenance.
Handling over 21 billion pixels per second, the system allows the museum to present cinematic stories across multiple galleries with synchronised playback and uniform image quality.
For HIVE, the project represents a major milestone and a powerful reference for immersive cultural installations worldwide. Mark Calvert, CEO of HIVE, says:
"One of the biggest achievements of the project was simplifying what had previously been an extremely complex projection environment. From the visitor's perspective, the experience is visually richer than ever, but behind the scenes, the system is now far easier to operate, maintain and scale long term.
"The National Museum of Qatar stands as a benchmark for immersive cultural experiences worldwide, and we're proud that HIVE technology plays such a central role in bringing that vision to life."
Panasonic Projector & Display Corporation acquired 100% of the issued shares of UK-based media technology company HIVE in May 2026, bolstering its capabilities in media playback and control for immersive and fixed-installation settings.
