AV Stumpfl’s Wings Platinum was used for Faber-Castell’s 250-year anniversary event at the Nuremberg Frankenhalle
features, place dancers into the structure, change the whole appearance of the building and they are interpreting the work of the architect who built it, in their very own way.”
She sees interactivity encroaching into the massive screen arena just as it is elsewhere. “I think interaction will be the key for future projections. People are just visitors at the moment but I think they want to be part of it; they want to influence actions individually. Therefore we have integrated a new network protocol to our new version of Wings, the Avio protocol. It allows many different kinds of signal to influence others. This technology will allow you to integrate touch functionality to projection of this size using laser detectors or gesture sensors.” Coolux’s Pandoras Box is a
software and hardware package for media and show control systems. “The driving force behind all of our activities is the wish to give our customers ever more creative freedom. Our product family is based around the same interface. Users have the choice between highly cost- effective software-only versions and a variety of different hardware solutions that can also be equipped with different input cards. Whatever the budget and size of the project we can offer our customers the right tools to make their projects,” explains the company’s Hans Stucken. “The Widget Designer allows non- specialists to design custom user interfaces to control and trigger a great variety of input and output devices that can be cross-connected in truly innovative and sometimes extraordinary ways. One can use a Nintendo Wii controller to trigger and influence a show's lighting set-up in real time, for example.” Future developments will further
increase the output and capability of projectors. One of the most talked about and eagerly anticipated is that of laser projection. Its extended depth of field will expand applications allowing focus on even more irregular structures; however, problems with scanning speed are currently delaying launch beyond the prototype stage. Some companies, including Panasonic, have announced hybrid LED-laser projectors for lamp- free reliability and projection. Panasonic’s Fenton adds: “Over the
next few years technology will progress and there is a clear trend towards projectors which have lower
levels of power consumption. Our customers are increasingly challenging their environmental business targets and we are constantly reducing the level of power consumption. There is also an increasing tendency towards the centralised AV control and support and in content delivery.” According to Tim Brooksbank, chairman of Calibre: “We can also expect more web-served warp and blend configuration using a webserver within the video processing hardware itself that will
‘The technology is
available to project onto almost any space or building, of any size or complexity’ Scott Burges,
eliminate unreliable PC-hosted control devices. As embedded processing power improves, particularly with the advent of affordable multi-core ARM processors, this will become practical; it’s something we’re already working on for next- generation products due to be launched in a couple of years.”