Athens conference projected stage set design
Innovative conference stage set design
Projected backdrop in Athens.
Using 10 ultrashort throw projectors and Dataton Watchout, we were able to project still and moving images across the angled flats, using a mixture of stills and video wecontinually changed the backdrop for each presenter and colours of other set panels. We also internally lit with LED thehi-tec perforated screen legs to produce really dynamic stage set.
For more information please see the case study
Video of the backgrounds changing here
A full 360 degrees
I have been using an App on my iphone (also on Android) called 360PANORAMA which has made doing a site recce so much easier. I can easily take full 360 pictures of the venue and upload while on site to a web page that anyone can view without plugins. It is invaluable when back in the studio to put on a plasma screen in meetings to discuss the job with my team. Have a look at the developers 360s , I would show you my pics but they change daily!
First impressions
I have just come across an amazing company calledMoothat produces beautiful business cards with coloured edges what they call Luxe Business cards and on 600gsm card! That’s nearly a piece of wood! They look very impressive.
They also offer the service whereby you can upload as many images as you like, letting you have a different image on the back of each card, a portable folio of your work, witty one liners etc They call this Printfinity. They seem competitive too!
Have a look:https://uk.moo.com
Have a look:https://uk.moo.com
I am just getting all my nice show shots together to send off to them, more difficult to find a good picture of me!
70M (230ft) projection of Havana
I was recently asked to sort an interesting challenge at an event for Pernod Ricard on an island off the south coast of France, where the screen was made up of 13 projection screens, seamlessly blended and wrapped around the audience.
I was asked by Brian Jones of Blonstein Associates if I could combine a number of hi-res day time images of Havana and make them look like they were taken at night – with street lights, lighting in buildings etc. The effect had to animate between night and day on cue.
We took the hi res stills and combined them into an 18,000 wide pixel image, removed the sky, so we could add our own with moving clouds, sun and moon, building shadows as the sun moved. We combined the Club Havana graphics all as a back drop to a massive Havana Club party where Blonstein Associates had choreographed musicians, actors and singers to entertain the audience. The day / night sequences were all managed and controlled by Dataton Watchout.
Sharing files in a taxi!
I was in a taxi out in Qatar recently working with two colleagues on an event to launch the new Cuban Hospital in Qatar. One of the chaps had just finished a short video edit but was off to another meeting with the client. The other needed the finished proof of the edit on his laptop for a meeting but we didn’t have a USB stick or CD between us and only 5 minutes before it need to be on his machine. I said “No problem, I can sort that!” Luckily they were both using Mac laptops, so on one of them I created a computer-to-computer wireless network (in System Preferences/Network), and turned on file sharing. With the other laptop I found my newly setup network from the first Mac, selected it and – using the public folder on the first Mac (no need to ask anyone for passwords) – copied the file across. Voil!
In-store interaction with will.i.am
We have just been working with Selfridges and iam+ (a new company set up by Will.i.am) that has just launched a number of iPhone cameras. The idea was to have an alleyway of 8 portrait 65″ plasma screens, which had video loops of 8 celebrities standing beckoning the customers.
Each screen had a PIR sensor to detect the customer when they approached the screen; these are similar to the sensors that turn on your outside lights at home. When the PIR was triggered, we scripted the computers to cross fade and run a second video of the celebrity raising the new camera and taking a picture. As the customer walked between the 65″ screens, each screen was triggered in turn, so it appeared the celebrities were taking pictures of the customers: a reversal of the traditional celebrity / paparazzi role. Please see my previous post for the mosaic screen.
Live mosaic of Will.i.am
Working with Selfridges and iam+ (a new technology company set up by Will.i.am that has just launched a number of iPhone camera attachments), we used two IP cameras to take pictures of the in-store customers.
We fed these pictures into a couple of Apple computers that were using face recognition technology to cut out head and shoulder shots of people to a uniform size. These were then fed to another computer where they were flown in from either side of the screen to build a photo mosaic of Will.i.am holding the new iam+ camera. It was fun to see people suddenly recognising them selves as part of the on-screen mosaic; it created quite a buzz as it was right next to the till.
And just a month later, I was in a discussion with one of our other clients who was asking for pictures to be taken of the delegates at a conference. I showed them the video below and we have since been asked to provide a similar standalone mosaic system for use on a European roadshow to run on a screen behind the registration desk built within a portable display system.
Aston Martin Vanquish launch
I was recently asked if I could help stage a local dealership car launch;not just any car,but the new Aston Martin Vanquish launch! Their requirements were simple,but like all car-related conferences and launches the standards are high.
We were asked to stage the launch at a very smart local restaurant that had had all its chairs and tables cleared. We chose to rear project from a small private dining room and hide all technology.
Getting the car in to the restaurant was exciting, this burbling beast of a car only just fitted with millimetres to spare through the entrance, even after they had removed the glass doors.
I can only say it really does sound as good as it looks!
https://www.astonmartin.com/cars/vanquish/video
Guy’s new blog
Yes, yes – timely updates and whatnot. Someone said to me recently “Why don’t you do a blog telling us non techie people about interesting stuff?” I keep being asked about Macs PCs, video technology and what can be done, how to do it and just technically quizzed. I was thinking about this last year, but have just not got round to it – last year was another one of those years where we get to go dark for a while and work on deliciously interesting secret projects we cant tell you a word about until they’re finished.
While were not quite back to a normal schedule, we have been busy the last few weeks getting ramped back up, with new equipment, staging, software and ideas for the shows we have over the next six months – some of which will be heading your way soon… hopefully on your next event.
The biggest questions Ive received the last few months are: what are some new ideas? what new technologies are out there? how can we do more for less and look better than the competition?… Well that’s what this blog will be about: bringing new and interesting ideas to do with the corporate communication world and anything else technically that takes my fancy!
More to come soon, please come back soon…