LHCb Cinema Room

CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Ferney-Voltaire, France

Cinema Room, located inside the LHCb building, one of the four experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is an immersive experience that translates complex concepts into a visual language for the general public.

The room is empty apart from a central table displaying a methacrylate model of LHCb. The walls, floors and ceiling are dark in colour. The structure of the room is designed to echo the layout of LHCb itself, with seven led light arches crossing the space corresponding to the seven sub-detectors of LHCb. The light arches activate in coordination with the audiovisual display, as does the methacrylate model of LHCb.

The side walls of the room define a V-shaped floor plan that focuses the attention towards the projection area at the end of the room.

The right wall contains a series of glass vertical panels that are engraved with elements of the cad design of the different layers of LHCb. Each glass panel is associated with the sub-detector corresponding to that band.
The left wall contains several screens of different sizes that in effect act as a single display along with the projection screens at the far end of the room.

The visitor experience consists of three phases:

1st – A real and virtual light effect generating a false perspective towards infinity.

2nd – An introduction to the LHCb detector, its function and its achievements.

3rd – A detailed exploration of each LHCb sub-detector and their function.