VYV and Creative Technology team up to map a mountain.
London-based group Creative Technology (CT), one of our key partners, once again relied on VYV’s expertise for an ambitious project at the 18th edition of the Asian Games.
The Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, a landmark of the Indonesian city of Jakarta, hosted the opening ceremony of the games in 2018. Wishnutama Kusubandio, CEO of Indonesian TV network NET, acted as the creative director for this historical opening showcasing a stage made of an artificial 27-meter-high by 120-meter-wide mountain topped with plants, flowers, a waterfall and a mock volcano. In order to work on the projection design, camera placement and technical integration, not only on the mountain but virtually every inch of the stadium, CT’s team worked every day for two months plus a month of night and dispatched 6 team members on location. At VYV, 3 researchers and developers worked remotely on the calibration system and 3D tracking for this large-scale production.
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The 600-ton mountain represented quite a challenge given its size and the irregular nature and contours of its organic surface that could not be modelled prior to arrival on location. In addition, about five hundred performers evolved across the incredibly large-scale environment, their shadows adding to the unstable nature of the surface. The technology required to achieve this monumental task was impressive: 78 panasonic laser projectors, 15 x 8 output Photon servers, 10 kilometres of fibre, over 7 TB of media, 4k content canvas for the mountain, a 4k canvas for the floor, 16 calibration cameras, and 45 IR calibration spheres.
With VYV’s help, CT’s team had to 3D scan the mountain once they got there, design the projection, tracking points and calibration, using our usual technologies: Photon and Albion. They had to re-calibrate the cameras each night, scaling it and covering it with IR emitters. They used Photon’s accurate colour correction algorithms extensively to improve how the video content looked on the green foliage covered mountain. Again, our tools communicating quickly and efficiently with each other proved to be a great combination for this mandate. Their reliability ensured that the show unfolded flawlessly.
« Once the mountain was constructed we flew out our surveying team from the UK to re-scan the mountain and remodel it to create a truly accurate representation of the finished article. This then allowed us to align the projectors with a very high level of accuracy. »
– Will Harkin, Project Engineer, Creative Technology, London
Once the set-up was ready, CT remotely gave us access to their interface. Our developers were able to test in a real-life environment some new calibration features in Photon. At VYV, we jump on every opportunity to improve the accuracy and efficiency of our tools. Such a huge and complex set up was a perfect laboratory to experiment with some exciting additions that will keep making our clients’ experience easier and more intuitive.
Client
Creative Technology
Creative Director
Wishnutama Kusubandio
Executive Director
Scott Givens
When
August 18 to September 2nd, 2018
Where
Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia