FEATURE: LARGE-SCALE PROJECTION
has been developed over the past few years, opening up massive creative opportunities: buildings can be turned into backdrops with people and furniture projected into windows; objects can be ‘built’ by projectors onto blank shapes, allowing products like cars to be dissected or shown in different finishes.” Mapping, using cameras or lasers combined with a CAD package, allows a 3D shape to be captured so that the shape of the structure, whether that is a building, the inside of a dome or a physical object such as a car, can be accommodated into the projection. The projected image is then morphed exactly onto the target, with an allowance for its overall shape, angled surfaces and features rendering an undistorted image. This capability goes far
beyond the simple keystone correction incorporated into most projectors designed to negate the effects of off-axis throw. When combined with appropriate lenses it enables projectors to be placed in a far greater range of positions and much closer to the projected surface. Reynard adds: “A unique solution we recently created was a ‘Projection Tunnel’, a curved roof which has six NEC U-series ultra short-throw projectors – three each side – seamlessly creating the experience of being inside the projection. Video and still content is projected from floor to ceiling and creates an experience that mimics the glass tube walkway underwater at many sea-life centres. Viewers really felt like they were stepping underwater when walking from outside the venue into the main auditorium.” With the improvement in
projection technology, particularly lensing, theatre
has started using more projection systems for virtual scenery, for example the backdrop for the UK’s recent Les Misérablestouring production. Burges continues: “The slightly increased technology costs are offset against the saving on scenery builds, trucking space and time. It also allows for creative ideas to be tested and developed on stage, enabling speedy scenic design changes.”
CLEAR COLOUR
Of particular importance in multi-projector systems is colour and light balancing between individual projectors. This is something that rental and staging companies will address prior to shipment and installation of projectors. “We are very particular about setting the colour temperature of all projectors and lamps in the warehouse before they are shipped out,” comments Spencer. “But we are even more concerned with matching lamps across the installation by similar hours of use and number of strikes because these affect the colour rendition of the image. This means that we have to hold around three lamps for each projector on the fleet in order to be able to provide a similar level of usage for each lamp in a large multi-projector installation; costly but the only way to achieve colour consistency across the whole image.” The latest generation of
projectors is smaller and brighter which further expands their application. A rule-of-thumb calculation for very large-scale projection onto buildings, for example, is that in general illumination a flux density of 80 lux is necessary. For promotional and advertising displays where the objective is to swamp social media channels
FIRST MULTIMEDIA SHOW ON LA SAGRADA FAMÍLIA
Work on the church of La Sagrada Família, Barcelona’s primary tourist attraction, began in 1882 and is still unfinished, 86 years after the death of its architect Antoni Gaudí. It contains several diverse facades, the most complex and famous of which is the Nativity facade, a swirl of detail, curves and uneven surfaces with four towers each dedicated to a saint, rising to a height of 170m. Montreal-based Moment Factory was invited
by the City of Barcelona to create the first sound and light spectacle to be projected onto this facade as part of the La Mercè Festival in the Catalan capital.
This 15-minute multimedia show, which took
over four months to prepare, used 3D video mapping techniques and Moment’s X-Agora playback system, synchronised with moving lights within the towers, to reinforce Gaudí’s dream to see his façade full of colours. Sixteen Christie 20K lumen projectors positioned on a 10m platform across the road from the facade provided a swirl of colour and images through the show which gripped the attention of over 100,000 spectators over three days.
with viewer smartphone recordings, around 100-120 lux is required and for major televised events, at least 200 lux is required. “A single Barco FLM
projector with 20K lumen output can comfortably produce a 12m-wide image,” explains David Webster, CTO at RGB Communications. “Sixteen of these projectors were used to map the entire face of the Millbank Tower building in London on the Thames for a marketing event for Nokia, and 36 were used to cover Buckingham Palace to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.”
An AV staging of the Leopold Museum's architecture during the 10th anniversary of the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, Austria by Urbanscreen
38 November 2012
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS Panasonic PT-DZ21K 20K lumen widescreen projectors utilising four UHM metal halide lamps were used at the Olympics with considerable power saving and lightness advantages. Charlie Fenton, product application manager projectors at Panasonic, says: “During the London 2012 Olympic Games Panasonic projectors were not only used in the opening and closing ceremonies but also within several corporate hospitality venues in the park. Panasonic large-scale projectors are capable of 3D mapping, allowing complex shapes to be adjusted to fit spherical, cylindrical and other shaped screens and surfaces.” Barco’s new HDFW 26K lumen projector has a footprint similar to its 22K projectors and allows a greater light output, and
hence fewer projectors for individual installations. projectiondesign’s recently introduced F85 11K lumen projector is the company’s brightest offering and weighs just 24kg, making it suitable for close-range, small-venue applications (see page 43). With advances in
processing power, greater video handling and manipulation is achieved within the projector itself. “Top-end digital projectors such as the Titan Super Quad and Lightning include warp to provide geometric correction for non-uniform surfaces as well as artistic effects and blend for seamless multi- projector displays on large surfaces,” explains Mark Wadsworth, international marketing manager at Digital Projection. “It is critical that all this functionality can be applied together to ensure the best possible mapping outcome.” Barco uses the powerful
Image Pro HD Athena Scaler. These added features allow advanced geometric correction and horizontal and vertical soft edge blending using Synergix. The company’s projectors are integrated with a range of image processing, edge blending and presentation switching tools such as the new FSN Presentation Switcher and Screen Blend Pro. “Epson has incorporated
edge blending into the EB-Z Series range of projectors,” comments Graeme Davidson, business manager, visual imaging at the company.
“Manually selected blending curves make the overlap areas invisible, and colour and brightness can be matched across all the projectors for visual perfection. The EB-Z Series also offers Point Correction to cope with uneven surfaces and an Arc Correction feature to correct slightly curved surfaces. Six built-in test patterns assist with calibrating the image, its tone, colour and the shape of the screen with ease.” However the processor- intensive and highly specialised image manipulation processes are left to dedicated off-board equipment. This, in turn, opens up new applications and effects, as outlined by the philosophy of AV Stumpfl’s multi-display solution expert, Michaela Berger. “There are two types of stimulation,” she explains. “The first one is commercial: people are surrounded by media the whole time, they have high-definition TV at home, music everywhere and see large-scale pictures in every cinema. The challenge is now to get the attention of these people. You have to create shows they haven’t seen before. With the integration of different media you can reach people in a very emotional way. The other field is art. When artists are creating architectural projections they have a new dimension they can work with. For example, Urbanscreen takes the structure of a building and works with it. They move
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STUDY CASE
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