Barco projection system at Almaty Museum of Arts

The challenge

Across four of the seven key spaces at Almaty Museum of Arts — the Ūly Dala temporary exhibition hall, the Saryarqa permanent exhibition space, the Richard Serra hall, and a dedicated Media Room — projection becomes an integral part of the exhibition dramaturgy of video art and media installations.
The key challenge was to deliver a consistent and high-quality visual experience across all spaces, regardless of architectural constraints, scale, ambient light conditions, and evolving exhibition scenarios.

Each space imposes its own requirements in terms of brightness, color accuracy, image geometry, and multi-channel synchronization. As a result, the projection system must support a wide range of artistic use cases — from single-channel video works to complex panoramic and multi-channel installations.

The solution

To support the museum’s multimedia infrastructure, a unified projection platform of 18 Barco laser-phosphor DLP projectors from the I600 and UDM series is deployed across four key spaces, delivering 4K resolution and brightness levels from 14,000 to 27,000 lumens for reliable, high-quality visual performance in continuous museum operation.

The projection solutions are delivered with the technical support of Sound Creations Electronics Trading, an authorized distributor of professional Barco projectors in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

In the temporary exhibition hall, the projection system supports multi-channel video installations and immersive artistic works, including projects by Almagul Menlibayeva such as Konaktar, the six-channel installation Ulugbek, and the five-channel work Kurchatov 22. The use of Barco I600 and UDM-4K22 projectors ensures precise synchronization between channels, accurate image geometry, and consistent color reproduction across multiple projection surfaces.

A Barco UDM-4K30 projector with an ultra-short-throw lens is installed in a shallow technical space behind the projection surface and is used to display Menlibayeva’s video artwork Butterflies of Aisha Bibi using rear projection technology.

Rear projection keeps the technology completely hidden from the audience, eliminates visitor shadows, and preserves high contrast even in environments with ambient exhibition lighting — delivering sharp visuals with exceptional black levels and perfect blending.

In the permanent exhibition space and the Media Room, Barco I600 projectors are used both for single-channel video works and as part of a four-projector panoramic system, creating a wide-format media environment with a strong sense of immersion.

The projection systems are precisely calibrated by the museum’s engineering team, who were trained to work with Barco projectors with the support of Sound Creations. Using Barco Projector Toolset, the team centrally manages geometric alignment, edge blending, color consistency, and system monitoring across multiple projection zones.

The result

As a result, Almaty Museum of Arts benefits from a scalable projection ecosystem that delivers perfect blending for exhibited artworks, precise synchronization across multi-channel configurations, high contrast, and exceptional black levels—even under challenging exhibition lighting conditions.

Barco Projector Toolset becomes a key tool for efficient system management, providing the museum’s engineering team with the flexibility to adapt to changing exhibition scenarios, centralized control over multi-projector setups, and the ability to quickly reconfigure the system for new curatorial concepts through an intuitive interface and streamlined workflow.

The Almaty Museum of Arts project sets an important benchmark for the development of museum technologies in Kazakhstan and stands as one of the first large-scale Barco references in the country’s museum infrastructure.

System configuration

2 × Barco UDM-4K30
10 × Barco UDM-4K22
6 × Barco I600-4K15