Leisure Management - Image Conscious

AV & Multimedia

From Attractions Management 2016 issue 3

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Image Conscious

In this multimedia round-up, an illuminated park boosts local tourism and a Rolling Stones retrospective hits the right notes

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EXHIBITIONISM

London, UK
Electrosonic

Electrosonic has created the AV for the touring exhibition on the life and times of the Rolling Stones, which is currently on show at London’s Saatchi Gallery.

Exhibitionism, which documents the British band’s 50-year history, is staged over two floors and nine galleries, each using innovative interactive and cinematic technologies. Electrosonic’s brief included the provision of almost 70 screens and cutting-edge projection and audio systems.

Various technologies were employed to aid the immersion of guests into the wild and wonderful world of the Stones. In one gallery, a display of 50 LCD screens envelops guests in film footage from the band’s history and images from concerts and newspapers. Elsewhere, LED walls create a impactful backdrop for an array of clothes, costumes and other artefacts.

Other highlights include a 2.5-metre (8-foot) sculpture of the band’s iconic lips logo. Created by Paragon Creative, five projectors are used to transform the model under an ever-changing display of colours and images. In the Recording Gallery, where visitors experiment with recordings at interactive listening stations, is brought to life with floor-to-ceiling projections.

The exhibition finale is a walkthrough of a backstage reconstruction before stepping out into a 3D experience that puts guests in the crowd at a Hyde Park performance of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”.

Panasonic, 7thSense, Harkness Hall, JoeCo and Behringer all supplied Exhibitionism, while London-based Fray Studio produced the video content. It was produced by Australian company International Entertainment Consulting.

The world of the Rolling Stones is brought to life in Exhibitionism – a show spread over nine galleries

The Exhibitionism tour is scheduled to stop in 11 cities worldwide, including New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo

Enchanted Nature
LUMINA PROJECTS

Coaticook, Quebec
Moment Factory

Moment Factory is the multimedia studio behind three illuminated night walks in Quebec, Canada, which are turning everyday parks into magical forests to delight visitors.

The first to open was Foresta Lumina at Parc de la Gorge de Coaticook in 2014, and the goal was to help the region boost its prominence as a tourist destination.

This summer, Anima Lumina and Nova Lumina have also opened. The first – a night walk at the zoo –explores animal life in the grounds of Zoo sauvage de St- Felicien. The second – a night walk by the sea – is located in Chandler, Gaspésie.

Each experience takes place after nightfall, when visitors discover an enchanted trail winding up to 2km (1.2 miles) and meet characters inspired by the area’s myths and legends, who draw them into an immersive adventure.

The scenography, combining projections and lighting and video mapping on natural elements, is accompanied by an original soundtrack. The Moment Factory team has custom-made each experience and the multimedia installations are seamlessly integrated into the surroundings, creating a sense of magic.

Since Foresta Lumina opened, tourism to the area has increased dramatically. The location attracted more than 145,000 visitors in 2015, a traffic increase of 1,800 per cent.

Visitors to the Parc de la Gorge in Quebec, Canada enter a magical world created by seamless multimedia

Ferrari World
FLYING ACES

Holovis Media has provided the pre-show experience for the new Flying Aces rollercoaster at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi – a ride inspired by the story of the Ferrari logo.

As the story goes, Francesco Baracca, a WWI pilot and Italian hero, used to paint a cavallino rampante (prancing horse) symbol on his planes. One day Baracca’s mother told Enzo Ferrari to paint the same symbol on his cars, to bring him luck. Holovis tells the story in a 45-minute queue line pre-show, featuring 29 different story zones.

The UK media-based attractions company was charged with setting the scene as people queue for the Intamin coaster, which is the steepest in the world, and boasts the highest and biggest loop.

To tell the story of the cavallino rampante, Holovis used projection mapping, holographic figures and audio illusions in an area themed like an Italian airfield. A 100sqm (1,076sq ft) sky mural provides the backdrop to the visual display that, like a “moving painting”, shows the Flying Aces squadron in the air. Windows feature specially embedded display technology to create the illusion of a world beyond.

“This spectacular attraction features the thrill of a traditional e-ticket coaster, but also puts people at the heart of a compelling story, thanks to the immersive storytelling in the pre-show,” says Stuart Hetherington, CEO of Holovis. “Incorporating our AV design and installation capabilities, the final experience achieves the highest possible levels of seamless integration.”

The queue line tells the story of an Italian pilot who inspired Ferrari’s famous logo

Festival atmosphere
IMMERSIVE FESTIVAL

Madrid, Spain
Christie

Christie has provided the projection for a fully immersive 360° dome at a festival in Madrid, Spain.

The dome was a highlight of the Immersive Festival 2016, held at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) in May – a free festival directed at all parties interested in fulldome, virtual reality or 360° film.

As technology partner to the inaugural festival, Christie fitted out the university’s 21-metre (69-foot) dome with six 3DLP projectors to deliver 3K resolution projections with over 12 million pixels.

“The festival wanted to use state-of-the-art technology for the projections, so we knew we wanted Christie on our side,” says Diego DeAnna of festival organiser NewMedia Creative Technology Studio. “This 360° projection system is so complex that only Christie can guarantee us the reliability, sturdiness, brightness and quality we were looking for.”

Marcos Fernández, Christie director for Spain and Portugal, says: “Our 3DLP projectors played a core role at this unique and fascinating festival. The Christie J Series was built to withstand the rigours and stress suffered by rental equipment. There is no other projector in the 20,000 lumens range than can deliver the rich saturated colours of the J Series in such a compact casing.”

Immersive Festival celebrates 360º film

Projecting emotions
DIANA THATER: THE SYMPATHETIC IMAGINATION

Los Angeles, California
Sony

No fewer than 35 Sony 3LCD laser and lamp-based projectors were used in an art exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in California earlier this year.

When US video artist Diana Thater brought her large-scale multimedia artworks to the gallery, high-brightness projectors were needed for the various installations. Versatility was key as the different galleries and the artworks themselves varied in size.

Sony’s VPL-FHZ55 and VPL-FHZ700L laser models were used, plus 20 VPL-FX30 lamp-based units were required for the artist’s earlier works. According to Sony there were a number of reasons why its projectors were suitable for the project, including the availability of interchangeable lenses and their ability to cope with Thater’s works, many of which demand extreme throw ratios.

“For more than two decades, Diana Thater has been creating groundbreaking installations that push the boundaries of how moving images are displayed,” says Christine Kim, exhibition curator at LACMA.

“It was clear early on that we needed appropriate square footage for these large-scale works,” says Kim. “Likewise, we needed to have all the options and capabilities to best display the artist’s brilliance. In terms of presentation, it’s imperative to find the most appropriate equipment to exhibit works as they are intended by the artist. That’s always an exciting challenge.”

The Sympathetic Imagination will move to Illinois to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where it will be on view from October 2016 to January 2017.

The exhibit used top-of-the-range laser projectors, but required lamp-based units to display the artist’s earlier works

Originally published in Attractions Management 2016 issue 3