UK video and AV specialist Central Presentations (CPl) provided a multi-screen projection design and equipment including media server control for “Regeneration”, a seasonal party event created by a leading technology company for over 1,000 guests.
The event was staged in Hangar 92, one of a number of decommissioned aircraft hangars on the former RAF Hullavington airbase near Chippenham, Wiltshire, which dates back to the second World War.
CPL’s Nick Diacre was asked to design and specify a high impact projection system by Bristol based production company Bright, The initial sense of anticipation started as guests trekked through the bleak and uninviting landscape of the disused airfield.
On entering the hangar, they were immediately confronted with a latter day Armageddon scene – apocalyptic mass destruction, a dramatic environment created through scenery, props, lighting, sound, images and bar staff in NBC outfits.
Into this entrance space, CPL supplied a 20 metre wide by 6 metre high sharks-tooth gauze, onto which was projected highly realistic content depicting disaster, destruction, explosions and post nuclear landscapes.
As the evening advanced, the Armageddon area was gradually toned down simultaneously with the Regeneration area undergoing a series of complete ‘transformations’ into a vibrant life-giving space, replete with rich flora and fauna, nature, hope and life, which then morphed via a final transformation into a ‘digital’ futuristic era – modern, invigorating and high tech.
In this second black box area, CPL supplied four screens – a 10 x 3 metre Stumpfl wide fast-fold screen behind the stage, with a custom surface to enhance soft-edge blending. This was fed by two 10,000 lumen Panasonic DZ110 projectors.
Directly above the central bar feature, CPL flew three 12ft 2 inch by 6 ft 11 inch Stumpfl fast-fold screens in a triangular configuration. They were suspended on steel wire ropes to give the appearance of floating in mid-air.
These were projected onto with three Sanyo XP100 units flown from trusses installed around the room, which also provided technical positions for lighting and sound equipment.
The two wide screen surfaces in the Armageddon and Regeneration spaces were fed content via a quad-head Coolux Pandora’s Box media server. A separate Pandora’s Box Player Pro was used to control video footage appearing on the triangular screens.
Projections onto all five surfaces were managed using the Pandora’s Box Media Manager, a highly flexible platform that synched the servers and was operated by Nick Diacre. He also created a custom ‘soft’ screen interface using the Pandora’s Box ‘Widget Designer’ enabling him to set up an individual screen of ‘soft’ cue buttons to trigger video material for the five ‘transformations’, all of which were timed sequences.
It was also used to add in images of fancy dress competition winners and synch the video and audio effects in the Armageddon room. Live bands onstage were followed by a DJ section as the ‘digital’ age fully emerged on the evening time-line. At this point, live feeds and content stored on the Pandora’s Box server were switched to all screens for the VJ section, via a TripleHead2Go and a MacBook Pro, using a combination of Resolume and MadMapper software. An additional MacBook Pro was used to store slides of the fancy dress outfits and competition award winners that were woven into Diacre’s mix.
