Designed around the theme of ‘The Living Ocean and Coast’, Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea occupies more than 250,000 square metres and is playing host to thousands of visitors from all over the world. The Expo’s 74 pavilions and related exhibits have been wowing these visitors ever since the event opened on May 12, and some 25 of them have made use of Dataton WATCHOUT multi-image and presentation software in their audiovisual show design.
“We are extremely pleased to see that many pavilions chose WATCHOUT because of the genuine reputation we managed to create for our products and services during the world expo in Shanghai two years ago,” said Fredrik Svahnberg, Marketing Director, Dataton.
“With the support of our Korean distributor Acetel, we have supplied some of the Expo’s most eyecatching pavilions with multiple WATCHOUT channels, enabling some of the most innovative uses of AV technology the world has ever seen.”
WATCHOUT is being used in some 18 of the Expo’s 47 national pavilions, including those hosted by Spain, Japan, Peru, Tunisia, Denmark, Germany, the UAE, Angola, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan – whose capital Astana is a candidate city to host the world expo of 2017.
Highlights of the Pavilions that deploy WATCHOUT include:
Music and video combined at Kazakhstan Pavilion
“In the Kazakhstan pavilion, we are using WATCHOUT not just for the automated playback of a six-projector sourced movie cycle, but also for the music in the band performances which are an integral part of that cycle,” noted Alex Samokhin, AV systems integrator working on the Kazakhstan pavilion.
“WATCHOUT is controlling audio cues, LED backlights and moving-head lighting fixtures which are used to highlight the live musicians, singers and dancers. Best of all, the performers themselves can choose their songs or dances using an iPod interface to the pavilion’s Crestron control system.”
WATCHOUT showcases Artic and Northern Shipping Routes at Russia Pavilion
Elsewhere, Russia’s pavilion features a 20-minute movie showcasing the country’s Arctic region and Northern Shipping Route, using 16 projectors powered by 5 WATCHOUT computers, with a sixth as the master controller to project on the four walls, floor and ceiling of the room.
Technical support of WATCHOUT in Peru, Uruguay and Malaysia Pavilions
There are so many pavilions at the Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea using WATCHOUT. Dataton Premium Partner for South and Latin America, Omagica were on hand to provide technical support to their local partner as well as other areas such as Peru, Uruguay and the Malaysian pavilion.
Dynamic Water Entrance, US Pavilion
The dynamic water entrance decoration to the US pavilion also employs WATCHOUT as its beating technological heart.
WATCHOUT blends visitor pre-show area at the German Pavilion
Germany’s ICT Innovative Communication Technologies integrated WATCHOUT in the visitor pre-show area of the German Pavilion to perform threefold and soft-edge blend projection on to a 24-meter panoramic screen. The area is designed to engage audiences as they wait for the exhibit doors to open with a cinematic presentation that highlights the diversity of the German coastline and harbours. At the end of the pre-show presentation, the innovative screen and wall opens up to allow audiences to discover and explore the German Pavilion.
In dome view at LG and Korea Pavilions
The 27 pavilions presented by the Expo’s host nation include exhibits supported by local and national government bodies, as well as attractions designed by the event’s corporate sponsors. Among the latter, the LG pavilion features a media façade powered by eight edge-blended projectors all driven by WATCHOUT, as well as an associated water screen. Even more spectacular is Korea’s national pavilion itself, which hosts a 30m dome with circular projection screen divided into 21 different zones – each powered by a different WATCHOUT-connected projector.
Both the LG and Korea pavilions had their systems designed and installed by local integrator AV Korea. “Our technicians have been using WATCHOUT for a long time so we were very confident in our choice,” said the company’s Director, Koo Joung Mo.
“The 30m dome, which also incorporates a 12.2 channel surround-sound system, was a first for this country’s event industry, but the technical support we received from Dataton and our partners domeprojection.com was second to none. WATCHOUT proved very easy to integrate with the system’s AMX controllers, which meant we were able to deliver a single point of control for the WATCHOUT show, all the projectors, and the event lighting.”
