Planning A Working Environment

An early task in the setting up of a multimedia studio is the planning of the working environment. Here multimedia visualisation tools prove particularly effective in arriving at optimum ergonomic solutions to fit available space and work patterns.

The illustrated studio model was constructed in Virtus Walkthrough Pro on the Mac. Modelling took about two days.

Where dimensions were known, elements were constructed with an accuracy of a fraction of a cm. This allowed the best use of studio space available to be considered and helped identify how much shelving was necessary and where it should go, as well as the positioning of trunking and powerpoints. Where additional storage space was required for discs and tapes, this was addressed by introducing mobile units beneath desks.

Furniture, equipment and viewing position could be easily repositioned within the room, allowing alternative arrangements to be tried out. And virtual figures were introduced to study the design ergonomics, to ensure that the most-often-used items were most accessible and permit greatest freedom of movement and comfort.

The project also had quite a bit of added value.

For example, still images from the model were used to enhance a paper to the centre's management committee, requesting funding for the studio. Undoubtedly, good visuals were persuasive in communicating the nature and need for the proposed facility.
And the model itself has been used in a number of client presentations, to illustrate practically the concept of virtual walkthroughs, as well as to introduce newcomers to our working environment.
Finally, once created the elements of the model can be, and have been, recycled for other purposes, in constructing other environments.

Obviously, there are many other purposes to which tools like Virtus can be put. Architectural visualisation, interior design and film storyboarding are some of the most significant areas in which the package has been used. Exhibition planning is another important area of application, as yet greatly unexplored.

Even if the finished output from Virtus is far from sophisticated as regards rendering, the fact that there are relatively inexpensive tools now available which allow models to be speedily contructed and then explored in near real-time is good, cost-saving news.