Map Features Amazing Lighting Effects, and Info on Adjacent Screens

Jason Wolin is involved with a non-profit organization that “serves in many parts of the world, but like many non-profits, the needs far outstrip the resources.” To help raise awareness about the needs that they serve, Wolin created an amazing map display that lights up different parts of the world, while revealing info on the area on two 65" 4K TVs.

The build is controlled by three separate computers — one for each TV, and another for the lighting — linked together with a series of three Arduino Nanos running the Wire.h library to coordinate everything. The map is managed via smartphone and operates on a schedule where it plays around 100 videos in a random (non-repeating) order. It then starts over again once the sequence is done. Adding new video content is simply a matter of placing files into the appropriate Dropbox folder, which are automatically added to the next cycle.

Illumination effects are taken care of by a fairly involved overhead setup of LED lighting sources controlled by the DMX protocol. This is used to produce light combinations that go along with what is shown on the screens. It’s a brilliant display as seen in the video below, and according to its detailed write-up, it works flawlessly.