Barco, the global technology company, helps to bring a Byzantine Palace to life in Istanbul, Turkey, using LCD technology and projectors.
Barco is pleased to be a part of an innovative project to rejuvenate the Byzantine Tekfur Palace. The historic building is the only surviving part of Blakernai Palace, which was used between the 11th and 15th century. The Istanbul Municipality has now restored it for use as a museum.
The palace was once a centre for pottery, glass and tiles during the Ottoman era, and the museum is now used to highlight these items, which were sent all over the world. It also provides visitors with more information about Byzantium and Ottoman history. The collection features glass, pottery and works of art from the Ottoman era.
Bringing the history of the palace to life
The building has a rich history and used to be part of a large palace complex. It was previously a royal residence. Then, after the conquest of Constantinople, it had various uses including a stable, a bottle blowing factory and a ceramics atelier. The authorities felt that this historical connection made it an ideal location for a tile, ceramic and glass museum.
The museum faced a challenge to present the collection in an interesting and informative way for visitors while exploring a variety of topics such as the historical background of Byzantium, Constantinople and later Istanbul, as well as the history of tiles and ceramic. It needed a way of presenting many artefacts in an attractive way while placing them in a historical context.
Unveiling the past
“Time inevitably changes things. So it’s important to show people what they looked like before,” says a spokesperson for the Tekfur Palace Museum Project. “Using Barco LCD technology and Barco projectors, we can do this in a spectacular way.”
The project uses a large 3 x 4 KVD video wall and a 3 x 2 Barco UniSee screen to bring different Byzantium history images to life and to provide information to museum visitors. On the top floor of the venue, there is a huge projection of verses from the Quran on the wall of the building. 2D and 3D animations have also been used throughout to enrich the experience and to help visitors to understand detailed information.
The KVD video walls offer high-quality images without the need for fans, meaning they are ideal for a museum setting, ensuring visitors are not distracted by ventilation noises. The Barco UniSee LCD video wall gives visitors a true bezel-less viewing experience with vivid colours.
Barco recently celebrated the success of the UDX series, launched in March 2017, by looking back at some of the iconic projects from around the globe that the projector has been a part of, from sporting events to music concerts.
