Six work packages, one visitor route
The memorial was established in 1977 and holds a rare collection of military weapons, uniforms and vehicles. The collection was strong; the halls were static. The brief in April 2023 asked for an immersive route through the building that respected the architecture, could be run by the museum's own staff and could be ready within weeks.
We scoped it as six work packages. A main-hall hologram presenting the country's four historic rulers through a 3D narrative film, ending with the four together in a symbolic scene. Hologram video screens at the entrance and in a second exhibition hall. A virtual speaker welcoming visitors at the entrance. Floor projection in the tomb hall. Renewal of the dome projectors, which were badly placed. And facade projection mapping for a short-run ceremony.
Five of the six ran on site in parallel between 11 and 31 May 2023, with survey, story, 3D production, installation and testing overlapping. The delivered system connects ten displays through Nplay Beam with a 5 GB media library, so the museum schedules and changes what plays without calling us. The full timeline is in the case study; this post is about the hardware decisions behind it, because those are the ones every museum hologram project in Jordan or elsewhere has to make.
Rear projection onto a dark screen
A hologram hall in a museum is a projection system, not a light-field device. A projector sits behind a black or dark glass screen and throws the image onto it from the rear. The screen is made of a material that reflects the projected light without distorting or scattering it, and its darkness is what gives the figures their contrast and keeps ambient light from washing them out.
Size is a function of the room. In the memorial's main hall the hologram structure was purpose-built and fed by a 3D narrative film we wrote, storyboarded and produced. In the second exhibition hall we noted that the venue's two existing projectors could be reused to give roughly a 300-inch image. That is a general lesson: audit what the building already owns before specifying new projectors.
What people call an AR hologram display is, in the words of our proposal, a system that combines “the real world with digital or virtual objects by projecting three or two-dimensional holographic images into glass surfaces”, seen through “a special screen film that helps capturing the holographic projection”. No glasses are needed. The trade-off is light: the room must be controlled. A hologram hall next to a glass atrium will disappoint unless the glazing is dealt with.
Content for a hall is a film, and it should be written as one, with a beginning, a scene structure and an ending that lands. Our team drafted the story, reviewed it with the museum, sketched every scene and only then modelled it in 3D. Museums that skip the writing get a screensaver.
A presenter who welcomes every visitor
The most photographed piece in most heritage installations is the smallest: a life-size person who appears to stand at the entrance and speak. In the memorial this is the virtual speaker — a presenter filmed in our XR studio, cut out, and mapped with a hologram projector onto an acrylic silhouette shaped to the figure. The message auto-repeats, and the hardware was finished to match the building's look.
This is a people hologram: it “creates the illusion of an actual person being present in a physical location”. It is visible without glasses, it costs a fraction of a staffed welcome desk over a year, and it never varies its script. For a memorial the figure was a life-like soldier; for a museum it might be the founder, a curator or a historical figure whose likeness can be reconstructed in 3D.
The workflow is short. Location and cabling first; script written and approved; presenter chosen, filmed, edited and approved; devices installed and a trial show run. At the memorial the character, script and video were complete within nine days of the start; installation followed the building works.
Where a museum wants the figure to answer rather than recite, the same silhouette can be replaced by a Halo Box running an AI avatar, which is the approach we take for interactive museum designs where visitors ask questions.
Which projector and surface goes where
| Element | Surface | Projector class | Room conditions | Content |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main-hall hologram | Purpose-built rear-projection hologram structure | Long throw (large hall) | Controlled light, dark backdrop | Scripted 3D narrative film |
| Hologram video screens | Black-glass hologram screen, rear projector | Short throw (larger room); reuse of two venue projectors gave ~300 in. | Low ambient light | Historical films and archive footage |
| Virtual speaker | Acrylic silhouette cut to the figure | Hologram projector | Entrance, moderate light | Filmed presenter, auto-repeating |
| Floor projection (tomb hall) | The tomb surface, viewed from above | Long-throw laser, ceiling mount at 8.7 m | Ceiling height, ceremonial protocol | “Falling lights” particle animation |
| Dome projectors | Existing dome, repositioned units | Two replacement projectors | Correct throw and alignment | New content written to fit the story |
| Facade mapping | Building exterior | Two leased projectors, 2–4 day event | Night, exterior power | 2D/3D messages, archive footage, flag, artworks |
Falling lights indoors, a facade outdoors
Two of the packages were not screens at all.
The floor projection in the tomb hall projects beams and particles of light from the ceiling onto the tomb surface — an effect we called falling lights, designed to feel like walking through a garden. The hall is 8.7 metres high, which dictated a long-throw laser projector mounted on the ceiling. The content was storyboarded, reviewed with the museum and coordinated with the ceremonial protocol of the hall, because a wreath-laying has its own choreography and the light must serve it, not compete with it. Interactive tracking of visitors walking above was planned for a second phase.
The facade projection mapping was different in kind. Two projectors were leased for a two-to-four-day event; 2D and 3D content — gratitude messages, archive footage of a historic battle, artworks and the national flag — was mapped onto the exterior. Facade mapping is a large, public and inexpensive canvas, but it is an event, not an installation, and it should be budgeted as one.
The dome package is the unglamorous one that saves the most embarrassment: two existing projectors were incorrectly placed, so we surveyed new positions, removed and relocated the old units, installed new ones and wrote content that fitted the story. Many museums own projectors that were never aligned properly; fixing them is often the best return in the whole project.
Three weeks, five tracks, one dashboard
The reason the project fitted into three weeks is that we treated it as five parallel sub-projects, each with its own survey, story, production, installation and test phases. Site survey and cabling routes for every hall were complete within the first week. Scripts, storyboards and the floor-projection story were approved in the same window. 3D production, filming and editing ran while technicians built structures and pulled cable. Trial shows were run hall by hall.
The other reason is control. Every display is a player on the same signage platform, so the museum's own staff schedule films, swap footage for an anniversary and monitor whether a projector is on, from one dashboard. That is what turns a one-off show into interactive museum design that lasts.
If you are planning projection mapping for a museum or memorial in Jordan or Saudi Arabia, the questions to answer first are about rooms, not technology: how high, how dark, how many visitors at once, and what ceremonies the space must still serve. Bring us those and we will bring the projector list.
Projection mapping Jordan: frequently asked questions
Does a hologram hall need a dark room?
It needs controlled light. Hologram screens are black or dark to give high contrast and avoid interference; direct daylight on the screen will wash the image out. Atriums and glazed halls need blinds or a different position.
How is the projector chosen?
By throw distance and room size: ultra-short throw for small rooms, short throw for larger rooms, long throw for halls and auditoriums. Ceiling height decides the floor-projection unit — at 8.7 m we used a long-throw laser projector.
Can museum staff change the content themselves?
Yes. All displays run through Nplay Beam, so films, footage and schedules are changed from a cloud dashboard without a technician on site.
How long does an installation like this take?
The memorial project was proposed in April 2023 and executed on site between 11 and 31 May 2023, with five sub-projects running in parallel. Content writing and 3D production are the usual critical path.