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Cando, a video, lighting, sound
and multimedia company in Wauthier-Braine, Belgium, once
again turned to Medialon to create a spectacular public
display. To promote Brussels ’s hosting of “Earth &
Space Week,” the company used Medialon to control a
large globe featuring projected images of various
celestial objects.
During the second week in February, world leaders,
policy makers and space experts gathered in Brussels for
an event-packed week and a major conference on
international cooperation in space. Earth & Space Week
2005 was organized by the European Commission in
collaboration with the European Space Agency. The
International Earth Observation Summit on 16 February
helped shape future Earth observation capabilities and
applications and increase cooperation in space.
DDB Focus Europe, a division of DDB specializing in
institutional communications, and DDB Live, the event
division of DDB, created the event announcing the “Earth
& Space Week.” Its main visual attraction was a giant
sphere, 22 meters in diameter, installed in the middle
of the City’s Schuman roundabout, on which earth and
space images were projected. The sphere’s inauguration,
also organized by DDB Live, took place just before the
festivities with Janez Potocnik, the European
Commissioner in charge of research had the pleasure of
lighting up the sphere with a push button.
Hired to create the giant video projection, Cando placed
five Barco DLP projectors inside the sphere, which was
fabricated from an inflatable high-gain material. The
systems ran simultaneously; the angle, height and
distance to the ground surface center were meticulously
calculated out to a specific simulation program that
allowed five perfect image links to combine for one,
single 360° image.
The images projected on the sphere, in the midst of a
frenetic European city displayed a quiet and magical
atmosphere of sea beds, the Antarctic, desert and planet
maps. Images were chose by the European Commission and
adapted in Cando studios which calculated image
distortions and links required to realize the 360°
image. To emphasize this artistic installation all
Schuman roundabout street lights were switched off.
“The five projectors were placed according to precise
simulation calculations to determine their exact
positions and angle of inclination in order to build a
360° image on the whole sphere surface,” commented
Cando’s Yves Winand. “These projectors were fed by five
DoReMi players. The challenge to overcome was proposing
a theoretic solution without having the opportunity to
test it -- the sphere arriving from Canada could only be
activated opening day! Eight Kolorados and 10 Mac 2000s
were also put inside the sphere for the light show.
Programming was done in one night to keep things a
surprise.
“Different sources, light and projector control were
synchronized by Medialon Manager to guarantee precise
timing for the image-and-light show,” he added. The
video sequence lasted a little over three minutes with
five rotations of 72 inches allowing viewers to see the
entire sphere from the same vantage point. |
