Xi’an Incident re-creation powered by d3
Published: ASIA
CHINA: Shaanxi Tourism Group Co Ltd recently staged a re-enactment of the Xi’an Incident to commemorate the event’s 80th anniversary. The hour-long production made use of various technologies, including three d3 Technologies 4x4pro media servers, which were provided by local reseller Redline and fed 36 laser projectors and 16 LED screens.
‘d3 provided access to control multiple show devices simultaneously,’ said Hu Jingfeng from Redline’s d3 support team. ‘Since it supports an open interface and protocol, it is compatible with many third-party systems.’
d3’s own support team had been involved in the pre-production process, designing the projection surfaces, projectors and lighting. ‘During the implementation period, there was constant communication between stage design, lighting, automation, projection and the video content creation departments to ensure a smooth integration of the various aspects of the production,’ stated Mr Hu.
The system’s content mapping technology, meanwhile, reportedly allowed for realtime modification during the production. ‘The adjustments on the feed output, such as cropping, moving, scaling, rotating and flipping, saved us a huge amount of time,’ said Ma Gong, technician at the Yaoguang Pavilion Theatre and the show’s d3 operator. ‘The director’s team was impressed by d3’s previsualisation feature. The design was simulated in a 3D realtime stage.’
It was the system’s QuickCal functionality that helped the team to calibrate the projectors quickly and efficiently. ‘The surface mapping was very accurate,’ commented Redline’s technical manager, Hank Liu. ‘The production used an audio console, which sent out LTC. With d3’s timecode sync, the director had full confidence that the audio and video would be synchronised at all times.’
‘Redline provided us with very clear, thoughtful and comprehensive d3 technical support,’ said Mr Ma. ‘We learned the basic operations and applications, but if there were any problems we couldn’t solve, Redline engineers helped us communicate with d3’s technical support team.’
The content for the show was produced by Beijing Blackbow Creative Design Institution Co Ltd, while the stage design was courtesy of Feng Lei of Beijing Fire Salamander Culture Development Co Ltd. The d3 support team from Redline comprised Steve Liu, Wang Tianxin and Hu Jinfeng.