The Data Arena is located within the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) at 81–117 Broadway, Ultimo. You can find us by walking down Broadway from the UTS Tower, past the UTS Central glass building. As you enter FEIT on level 2, walk past the elevators on your right, and you'll find the Data Arena entrance on your left.

If you're familiar with the UTS building code system you'll find the Data Arena at CB11.02.101.

Open House every Thursday 12–1pm. Book here: Book a visit

A good starting point is to come see the Data Arena (DA) during one of the Open House sessions run every Thursday Lunchtime 12–1pm. We typically run two 30min sessions. It's free, but we'd ask you to book to ensure we can limit numbers. There's more info, including directions, on the Eventbrite website: http://bit.ly/dataarena

The DA Open House is part of UTS Outreach to our local community and the general public. To this extent these presentations are fairly general in nature, and not intended for staff/student groups or specific commercial/govt engagement. If you'd like to dive deeper, get into something more specific, or investigate how your group could get involved, it's probably better to book a time outside of this Open House. Send us an email.

If you've already seen the DA and would like to book a particular session time, head to our Calendar page for internal or external bookings.

Head to our Calendar page and make a booking. For internal UTS Students, Academics, Professional Staff, for Teaching and Campus Tours, click the New internal booking button and fill out the fields and we'll get back to you.

For external bookings (non-UTS) businesses, government etc, please follow the suggested links on the Calendar page to get in touch with some at UTS, otherwise feel free to email us directly: dataarena@uts.edu.au.

DA Calendar - The Data Arena Calendar is in the UTS Outlook email system online. If you have access to the UTS Outlook, you can ADD the Data Arena Calendar. (Click on Add Calendar, and enter "dataarena@uts.edu.au" as the calendar name). This will let you see what times are available.

Hours - During regular hours we have a limit of 3 hours max. We also have a limit of 30mins minimum. We do not accept bookings less than 30mins (it takes too long to setup & shutdown, handle 3D Glasses, and a brief viewing leads to confusion). The Data Arena is closed on the weekend. Longer bookings should be justified by email, and are preferred to be early morning, or after 4pm.

Training - Bookings usually require a DA Presenter to run the theatre. You need to have already completed a 30min Data Arena training/induction before you can run the Data Arena by yourself. It's important to know the steps required to return the DA to its default state. Otherwise, please request a DA Presenter in your booking - the presenter can startup & shutdown the theatre.

The Data Arena is a Linux cluster.

The Data Arena run primarily Open Source software. Specifically, the version of linux is Gentoo Linux. Always keep in mind: Linux is Linux - there are many different types of Linux builds, such as Redhat and Centos and Ubuntu and Debian and Fedora and Suse and so on, but they ALL build from the same source code. Gentoo builds from this too.

Gentoo Linux has many advanced build features. It builds everything from source code, on the machine itself. This includes the Linux Kernel. Most other distributions provide pre-compiled binaries, which are mostly unchangeable. Doing this build means we know where every file came from, and can construct a complete dependency tree. This means packages can be un-installed, with a complete knowledge that there is nothing which depends on the package. This is fairly rare for Operating Systems.

Gentoo is very flexible - it is upgraded easily and adapted as required. The Data Arena does not need to wait for a new linux release to be provided by an intermediary group. Building from source means direct access to updates. The Gentoo group manages versions and oversees interoperable stability. This means there is even access to unstable versions still in development, which can be temporarily installed/tried.

In certain cases where Microsoft Windows is required, we can spin-up a Virtual Machine on the server: Solo. Generally, however, there is a way to do most things in Linux. We prefer you try our linux system.

The Data Arena runs the KDE Plasma 5 desktop. This includes a graphical user interface (GUI) with regular file browsers (like microsoft & mac osx) and web-browsers such as Firefox and Chrome.

There is a video matrix mode where the one linux server "Solo" addresses all six video projectors in the Data Arena. In this mode, the Solo Desktop covers the entire 360 cylindrical display - the one computer essentially has 12-screens: 6 for the left eye, and 6 for the right eye, in a 6x2 screen format. This mode is not as powerful as the linux cluster, and better suited to simple tasks such as wide-screen web-browsing and power-point slide presentation. Solo will also run in "mono" 6 -screen mode, where the 6-left-eye screens are also routed to the 6-right eyes. This is the mode commonly used when displaying simple pdf slides. These display modes are selected via the iPad control tablet.

There was a version of OSX up and running a few years ago, but the Mac Pro 2013 was removed in 2017 in expectation Apple would soon release a new Mac Pro. We are still waiting (October 2019) for Apple to release this machine.

Our preferred method to transfer files/data is via cloud storage. This helps up avoid a number of electrical issues from some drives which have previously disrupted our other USB Interfaces. We consider this as better digital hygiene. Once your files are uploaded somewhere accessible to us, we'll download them onto our file system.

We can support any online cloud storage solution, e.g:

• OneDrive
• CloudStor
• Google Drive
• Dropbox etc

Share/download links will need to be either made public, accessible to us, or just to you if you can login once at the Data Arena. If you cannot upload your data via cloud storage for any reason please contact us.

Previously we recommended using the AARNet-provided CloudStor service, however this is being decomissioned in December 2023.

Data Arena Drop Folder

We currently have a temporary, shared drop folder available here → dataarena.net/dropfolder. Create a folder for your project, upload your material here, and let us know when you've done so.

Security

For security reasons there is no way to push your files into the Data Arena. Instead, the process is to come to the Data Arena, then pull your files. That way we do not need to authenticate you, or deal with a sudden influx of files from some remote location.

In some special cases we have allowed a veracrypt encrypted drive to be mounted manually (with a password required at mount-time) for confidential/commercially sensitive data. These drives were kept secure in the machine room and unplugged when not in use. However this can become fairly tedious and is not considered Business As Usual.

Contact us by email with the specifics for your project: dataarena@uts.edu.au

eResearch at UTS run a "Hacky Hour" every Thursday from 3-4pm in the Penny Lane Cafe (UTS Building 11) where you can also find assistance.

We usually prefer to keep the numbers below 15-20 people. Due to COVID-19, we currently have a limit of 8 people in the theatre at one time.

People stand in the middle of the theatre and are surrounded by the 360-degree cylindrical screen. When the theatre door closes it becomes part of the screen.

There are no "bad seats" in the Data Arena. Adding people beyond the 20-person limit affects everyone. It becomes difficult to see the screen.

It is possible to bring furniture (seats) into the Data Arena, but please allow time to bring them out again. The main console table (Screen, Keyboard, Mouse) is on wheels so can be brought in to the theatre. Generally demonstrations are run from Wireless Devices (iPad, SpaceNav, PS3 + PS4 Controllers, Wireless Mouse, Optitrack Markers).

The Data Arena is basically free for use by UTS Researchers, Students, and Staff. There is a small hourly cost for DA Presenters.

There are hourly and daily rates available for Commercial, Industrial, and Government use. Special rates are available for Start-ups and SME's. Please contact us for more details.

Yes. A number of the "UTS Identity Movies" are loaded into a menu on the DA iPad and may be used as a backdrop for photography if UTS-appropriate. Please contact the UTS Media Communications Unit to check permission.

If you wish to bring your own imagery, please contact us. You will need someone to load your image for display. Upload your images to Cloudstor - please see FAQ "How do I transfer my data?"

As the Data Arena uses Video Projectors, flash photography can wash-out the image.

Existing DA Projects are not available for photograph backgrounds unless you obtain prior written permission. It is not appropriate to use images from another group's work as a background for your photograph.

No - the Data Arena's Opening Title Video is not available for photography.

The Wombeyan Caves video might be available for use as a background, upon request. Many people have used the standard DA Test Grid as a photo background.

For best results bring a tripod.

No, is the short answer. It's not that sort of display.

There are many lecture theatres on campus which will happily take your laptop HDMI connection. If you are planning a Slidedeck Presentation, then perhaps you should consider a lecture theatre instead.

The Data Arena is a VR CAVE. It integrates seven high-performance linux servers with 15 x GPU's, a 32x32 video matrix, and 12 x FPGA Warp-Blend Units which drive 6 independent Barco Video Projectors to create a seamless 360-degree panoramic stereographic display. The underlying software performs load-balanced parallel-rendering. There's isn't an HDMI cable.

Having said that there are some interesting options.

1. We run SAGE2, which allows multiple laptops to share their display with the Data Arena. It takes a little bit to setup, and there is some lag, but it works.
2. Transfer your data to the data arena and use one of our pipelines. This will require some work, but the results are very good
3. If you really do have a PowerPoint Slide Deck, or PDF files, there are a number of ways to display them in the Data Arena. The main server Solo runs LibreOffice. Slides can be shown 6-in-a-row, side-by-side around the theatre using "qpdf". You just need to transfer your slides ahead of time (at least a day before, please. Come try them first).
4. The Data Arena runs VRPN which enables all sorts of controls (mice, wands, trackers)
5. If you just need a network connection, the Data Arena has WiFi and Ethernet Cable Ports (RJ-45). Yes, you can plug your laptop into the network - but please speak to us first!