Brilliant! is a show that redefines the way we explore the history of Las Vegas. This magical audiovisual immersion experience reanimates 40 monumental examples of The Neon Museum's iconic vintage signs and transports visitors into the history of Las Vegas through sight and sound. Brilliant!, created by artist Craig Winslow, takes place in our North Gallery and is the largest augmented reality experience of its kind.
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It utilizes 24 3D-sound speakers and eight projectors to create a 360-degree audiovisual experience. Two climate-controlled towers, designed to resemble the classic Champagne-bubble cylinder from the old Flamingo Las Vegas hotel and casino, house the projectors, which are aligned at precise angles to cover the entirety of the North Gallery space. To create the projections used to give the impression the signs have been re-electrified, Winslow took a combination of flat photography, drone video, and 3-D photogrammetry, all used as references to recreate each sign, bulb by bulb. He then used a process called structured light scanning to obtain a precise view of the projectors' output, before fine-tuning the content to perfectly align to the actual surfaces—the bulbs, bent metal and broken neon tubes of the signs in the gallery. This process, known as projection mapping, aligns digital animations to the physical world, allowing signs that have not been illuminated for decades to shine once again.