Background

The Harley Earl immersive room at Renault's Technocentre in Guyancourt, Paris Region, is a central visualization tool for the automaker's design team. Originally installed by Immersion in 2011, the room enables designers to view vehicle prototypes at full 1:1 scale, assessing surface grain, colour nuance, and curvature as if a finished vehicle were physically present.

The 2019 upgrade

In 2019, Renault commissioned Immersion to overhaul the system. The original six-projector configuration was replaced with a single high-power RGB laser projector, which reproduces a colour spectrum close to reality and delivers light output equivalent to a large cinema. A new 16.5m² glass screen provides the display surface, enabling 1:1 prototype views at a precision standard not previously achieved in the room.

Architectural changes

The switch from six projectors to one required a substantially larger screen, which in turn meant the room itself had to be structurally modified. Immersion's multidisciplinary team, which includes architects, redesigned the space to accommodate the new hardware while preserving the room's usable footprint.

Applications and outcomes

The upgraded room supports a broad range of design decisions: evaluating leather grain, assessing colour nuances (including subtle tonal distinctions in red), and appraising exterior curves and proportions at full scale. Improved rendering fidelity reduces ambiguity in material and colour selection, allowing teams to explore more design hypotheses and reach decisions faster. According to Immersion, the upgrade also reduces overall development cycles. The room doubles as a prestige showcase for VIP visitors to the Technocentre.