Brisbane visual communication company, Spatial Media has won the opportunity to create a visual engagement portal to support the development of Australia’s first offshore windfarm, Star of the South, to be located off the south coast of Gippsland, Victoria.
Star of the South could generate up to 2.2 GW of new capacity, powering around 1.2 million homes and supplying up to 20 per cent of Victoria’s electricity needs.
Partnering with Veris, Australia’s leading provider of spatial data services, Brisbane-founded Spatial Media overcame competition from 20 Australian and international organisations to secure the contract.
This has seen the firm bring the project to life and create a range of digital assets and tools that will ensure the benefits of the project are articulated for stakeholders and communities.
Co-founder and Managing Director Jai Eakin said Spatial Media is providing a complete package of digital and virtual and augmented reality assets including a website, videos, augmented reality, and interactive 3D modelling, as well as community consultation analytics.
“With Star of the South in the feasibility and development phase, Spatial Media’s visualisations are critical in telling the story of the project and ensuring support for a landmark renewable energy project,” he said.
“Our visualisations are much more than just creating long boring flythrough videos; we are bringing the project to life before any construction has begun.
“This includes launching with an interactive web portal featuring a virtual tour, rendered images from different viewpoints along the coast, explainer videos including an interactive 3D model of a wind turbine, a video tour of the wind farm on a boat, and a video walking along the beach.
“The visualisations are valuable engagement tools allowing the Star of the South team to effectively communicate and consult with Traditional Owners, stakeholders, local communities and landholders.”
Mr Eakin said Spatial Media’s technology would also play a key role in the community consultation process for the Star of the South project.
“Consultation with the community is a key aspect of the environmental assessment and governmental approval processes, which is where Spatial Media’s proprietary community engagement software, Community Analytics (CA), comes in,” he said.
“This real-time interactive software provides an accurate visual simulation of the proposed designs prior to construction, giving stakeholders an unparalleled level of realism from the shape of the sand dunes to the ocean’s buoyancy. “
“The analytics within this platform will allow Star of the South to easily gain detailed statistical data and direct feedback from the community on the proposed project.“
“This will provide the project team with a better, deeper understanding of their stakeholders – introducing analytics on all digital tools to enable a data driven approach to stakeholder engagement and public participation in the project,“ said Eakin
Spatial Media’s interactive engagement portals have revolutionised how organisations and project teams can effectively communicate complex ideas with internal and external stakeholders, specific affected communities and the wider public.
