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.

View the Star of the South Portal at https://caportal.com.au/sots/offshore-wind

ENDS

About Spatial Media Spatial Media has become one of Australia’s leading visual communications companies. As the creators of the Interactive Engagement Portal & Digital EIS with Community Analytics (CA) immersive stakeholder engagement and public participation is at the cornerstone of the company.

From launch, their 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.

Spatial Media’s proprietary community engagement software, Community Analytics (CA), is a market leader; offering project collaborators bespoke intuitive platforms upon which they can tell their story, ask for feedback, and engage with their customers. The CA platform integrates mobile and desktop data capture tools with a web-portal content management system (CMS) and integrated analytics, conveyed through beautiful geo-spatial insight dashboards.

The company has been involved in some of the largest and most complex infrastructure projects throughout Australia, including.

• The Western Sydney Airport,
• Brisbane Airport’s second runway,
• WestConnex
• M12 Motorway,
• The Western Harbour Tunnel/Beaches Link,
• The Westgate Tunnel Project,
• Sydney Metro West,
• Snowy Hydro 2.0 and many more

About Star of the South Star of the South is Australia’s first offshore wind project, proposed to be located off the south coast of Gippsland in Victoria. Star of the South would help meet energy, emissions reduction, and economic goals by supplying secure, reliable and affordable power into the future. Star of the South has the potential to power 1.2 million homes, or nearly 20% of the State’s energy needs.

The project is in the feasibility phase with environmental assessments currently underway to support planning and approvals. If Star of the South is approved and proceeds to construction, works could start by the middle of this decade with full power before the end of the decade. https://www.starofthesouth.com.au/

Press Contacts Taylor Whyte Communication Manager Elevate Communication Phone: 0431 068 296 Email: taylor@elevatecom.com.au