Projection mapping installation – An 80-Foot Window on Suriname

How a curved atrium wall at Ramada by Wyndham Princess Paramaribo became the most photographed feature in the hotel, and why it is still running 13 years later

The atrium wall above the casino floor: four blended projectors, one continuous image.

When Ramada by Wyndham Princess Paramaribo was being built in 2013, it was one of the largest construction projects in Suriname. Streamline Systems was brought in to design and supply the audio, video and lighting systems for the whole hotel: the casino, the restaurants, the nightclub, the conference room and the rooftop lounge.

One space gave us a design problem unlike the others: the atrium, and its large curved wall. It called for a projection mapping installation unlike anything else in the building.

The Brief: More Than a Wall

The wall was too big and too visible to leave blank. The owners wanted something dynamic. It had to make the atrium beautiful, and it also had to be a way to talk to guests.

Today, guests stop and take photos of it every day. It is about 80 feet across and shows photos and video of Suriname’s flora and fauna, live weather for Paramaribo, restaurant menus and upcoming events. Getting there took some careful engineering.

Why Projection Mapping, and Why It Was Hard

In 2013, LED tiles would have been a good choice technically, but at this size they cost too much. Projection was the practical answer, but a curved wall brings two problems that a flat screen does not.

Blending. No single projector could cover the surface, so the image had to be built from four projectors. Each one has to overlap the next, and the joins have to disappear so the wall reads as one continuous picture.

Focus. This is the part most people do not think about. On a flat screen, the distance from the lens to the surface is roughly the same everywhere. On an uneven curve, the distance changes constantly across the image. Keeping the whole picture sharp on a surface that moves nearer and farther from the lens takes careful planning of where each projector sits and how its throw is set.

Geometric alignment in progress: a numbered test grid mapped point by point to the curve of the wall.

What we specified:

• Four Panasonic projectors, positioned so each covers its section of the curve.
• Projection screen paint on the wall itself, to raise contrast in an atrium that is never completely dark.
• Edge blending and colour correction in Panasonic’s own software, done inside the projectors. This kept the processing at the end of the chain and local to each projector, with no external processor to maintain or to fail.
• A content server feeding the image, so the hotel could change what was on the wall.

Thirteen Years, 15 Hours a Day

The screen has run more than 15 hours a day since the hotel opened. That comes to more than 70,000 hours of operation, which is a demanding duty cycle for any display system.

By 2026, it was time for an upgrade. It was not a rip-and-replace. We kept what worked, including the wall, the design and the blending approach, and modernised the rest:

• Four Panasonic PT-RZ990 laser projectors at 10,000 lumens. Moving from lamp to laser removes routine lamp changes and gives more consistent brightness and colour over time, which matters on a system that runs all day, every day.
• KanexPro HDBaseT 4K baluns to carry the signal to each projector, replacing the original 1080p signal path with a 4K-capable one.
• A SpinetiX iBX440 media player in place of the old content server. It drives all four outputs from one unit and brought management of the whole system online.

The wall seen from the upper level, with ceiling-mounted projectors at left and right.

That last change made a big difference in day-to-day running. The hotel’s marketing team can now update the content online, and so can our team in Trinidad. A new menu, an event announcement or a seasonal change does not need a technician on site in Paramaribo. When the hotel needs support, we can often provide it remotely.

The Result

The projection mapping installation wall has become the atrium’s signature feature. Guests photograph it and share it, which is free marketing for the hotel, 80 feet at a time. It does the two jobs it was designed for. Scenes of Suriname’s rainforest and wildlife give the space a sense of place. Weather, menus and events keep guests informed without printed signs or banners.

Communicating with guests: a live five-day forecast for Paramaribo across the full width of the wall.

The part I am proudest of is that it is still running and still worth investing in, 13 years later, with the same integrator. That is what a system designed properly from the start should look like.

The Bigger Picture

Across Trinidad, Suriname and the wider Caribbean, feature installations are often treated as one-off purchases. They go in, they run until something fails, and then nobody knows how they were built. There are no drawings, no labels, and nobody knows who holds the passwords. At that point, the owner is often paying to start again.

Good results come from certified design and disciplined workmanship. I hold AVIXA’s CTS, CTS-D and CTS-I certifications, and there are still few certified professionals in the region. That matters even more when the site is on another island or in another country. Being brought in during construction helped too. Mounting positions, power and cable routes were planned in from the start, not added after the walls were finished.

What to Ask Before You Hire an Integrator to do a projection mapping installation

What is projection mapping?