TDC goes large at Vivid Sydney
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Extended this year from its usual 18 days, Vivid Sydney is reportedly breaking records this year at a 23-day duration, with video projections setup across the city at nine different locations, including Taronga Zoo and the Royal Botanic Garden. For the sixth consecutive year, Technical Direction Company (TDC) is providing the festival that stakes a claim to being the ‘world’s largest spectacle of light, video and music’ with the required projection technology.
Having been working on the festival since 2011, TDC’s work on the next year’s show begins almost as soon as the previous one ends. ‘TDC works on the latest in projection and interactive technologies for Vivid for a total of 11 months prior to the event collaboratively engaging with all project stakeholders in enabling the artists’ creative imaginations to be writ across the skyline,’ explained TDC CEO Michael Hassett.
Across the nine locations comprising this edition of Vivid Sydney, TDC has employed over 30 full-time technical staff members and 70 video projectors, ranging from the 22,000 lumens variety up to 40,000 lumens, to facilitate the equivalent of 11km of projection. Also deployed is 20km of signal and power cables, 22 media severs and three automation platform servers operating on a unique software code all enabling 20 million pixels, a 1,750,000 ANSI lumens brightness light output and 800Gb of video footage to be continuously played back over the nine sites.
‘Managing the animations we are using d3 technologies media servers for a number of our sites this year,’ stated Steve Cain, head engineer at TDC. ‘Two features that d3 media servers offer are 3D visualisation and footprint features to show hotspots and coldspots in projection mapping areas. It makes my life so much easier. We can visually represent the object or building using a 3D fly-through showing how the projection will be laid out on the site to a millimetre of accuracy. This was particularly useful for when we worked at Taronga Zoo where we had to alter projector tower locations. Working in 3D we could move the projection towers and see the results instantly.’
The equipment across all sites is remotely monitored and reported in real-time. ‘Vivid Sydney enables us to continuously develop and research the “TDC Live View” software we’ve written that monitors the performance of all the projection equipment,’ noted TDC senior engineer, Drew Ferors. ‘We have installed sensors to measure even variables like temperature. TDC Live View manages the integrity of projectors 24/7, sending an alert in real-time if there’s unforeseen issues providing critical technical updates remotely.’
The Vivid Sydney display at Taronga Zoo incorporates the centenary celebrations that the zoo is currently enjoying and proved particularly technically challenging for TDC from a projection mapping standpoint. ‘We’re projecting onto the ground to add depth using bugs and critters,’ added Mr Cain. ‘Due to the nature of sculptures and trees, we’re using ultra-short-throw lenses on our projectors. It was technically challenging from that point of view. We used Ample Projects’ 3D modelling for the entire site prior to the project using the d3 4by4pro Media Server and the results speak for themselves.’
Another notable challenge presented itself at the Laser-Dragon Water Theatre, as TDC has provided video projection on three water-screens that are mounted on a 13m robotic arm and hovering above 56 fountains. The effect given is of characters taken from Commedia Dell’Arte’s 16th century theatre, including a dragon, formed in the moving water. ‘Water screen projection runs three different shows every night and a fun feature is Intel Realsense 3D facial recognition technology that captures the surprised faces of visitors seeing themselves displayed on the water screens,’ furthered Olin Winton, technical manager at TDC.
The organisers of Vivid Sydney continue to be impressed with TDC’s contributions to the festival year-on-year. ‘Technology is a key element to the Festival as an enabler of artistic works,’ concluded Sandra Chipchase, executive producer for Vivid Sydney and CEO of Destination NSW. ‘We’re constantly amazed at what TDC achieves for us each year and this year it’s bigger, better and more spectacular than ever. We expect it to go down in history as a record breaking year in attendance by audiences of all ages.’