Modulo Pi, a provider of media server solutions with a user-friendly design, is marking the second anniversary of the launch of Le Mime et L’Étoile at Puy du Fou in France.
The multi-award-winning show honours the origins of cinema, with more than 120 performers and a moving Belle Époque-style set. Its sophisticated audiovisual setup is powered by Modulo Pi’s Modulo Kinetic media server. This technology integrates dynamic projection mapping, lighting, and spatialised sound with exceptional accuracy.
Bespoke building & advanced AV
The show takes place in a custom-built, 16-metre-tall Belle Époque building, which spans a total of 3,805 square metres and can accommodate 2,000 guests in its grandstand.
In this early 20th-century setting, a film director dreams of bringing colour to his black-and-white silent films. The show centres on a romance between Garance, a cinema star, and Mimosa, a gypsy mime, in a plot that showcases the artistic and technical advances of cinema at the start of the 1900s.
To create an authentic, cinematic viewpoint, Puy du Fou wanted audiences to experience Le Mime et L’Étoile as a long tracking shot. As the grandstand is static, this required the stage and its sets to move throughout the performance.
This reverse tracking effect was facilitated by the building’s bespoke design, in which almost 2 kilometres of scenery, weighing some 140 tons, passes a 30-metre-wide stage opening. Moving walkways are hidden from the audience and enable the cast to perform against the sets’ scrolling house facades and shop fronts.
An advanced AV system enhances the immersion, with video projection, lighting, and spatialised sound which are synchronised in real-time with the action on stage.
Charly Landreau, video and special effects manager at Puy du Fou, says: “The brief was to have a complete mapping of the sets over 30m wide by 10m high, but all on moving sets. We also needed to project the texts of the show in the style of silent films, as well as track the actors like a follow spot so that the video effects would be in sync with the staging.”
Perfect synchronisation
Four Insight 4K video projectors from Digital Projection provide projection for the enormous set, with a total of 80,000 lumens. These units are driven by Modulo Pi’s Modulo Kinetic media server, which guarantees mapping that is perfectly synchronised with the moving sets.
“As users of the Modulo Kinetic system since 2016 on Le Dernier Panache show, which is also running in the Puy du Fou España park, right from the start of the project we called on the experts at Modulo Pi who had the answers to our questions and the responsiveness needed to develop new features useful to the project,” says Landreau.
“The moving sets represented nearly 2km in length, making 3D modeling a real challenge for video tracking.”
The system includes a main Kinetic Designer workstation and a spare, two Kinetic V-Node servers with two 4K outputs, and a further spare unit. The 3D model of the sets was imported into Kinetic Designer to develop the dynamic mapping needed for the performance.
The 3D decoration was mapped using the media server and its 3D calibration tools. Modulo Kinetic also receives position information from the machinery, which moves the facades and storefronts via OSC. With this, the media server is equipped with the exact location of each set element and can calculate mapping and soft edge in real-time. This results in perfectly synchronised projection on the moving sets.
Special attention was also paid to the colours, which were designed to represent the imagery of the era, the subtleties of black and white, and the development of colour.
The theme park’s artistic and technical experts used Modulo Kinetic’s compositing tools, such as the Graph Editor, which enables the addition of old film or mask effects. These embedded capabilities meant that the projected film could be enhanced to the required rendering directly on site.
Furthermore, Naostage’s tracking solution tracks the movements and positions of 16 key performers in real-time. This links automatic light tracking, the L-ISA spatial sound system from L-Acoustics, and video. Modulo Kinetic accesses position information from Naostage in PosiStage. This allows it to “track the actors like a follow spot so that video effects are synchronized with the staging,” says Landreau.
Reliable, comprehensive technology
Le Mime et L’Étoile is timecode-synchronised in order to bring together all of its technologies. Elements of the AV system, notably the video projectors, matrix switcher, and lighting console, are controlled using Modulo Kinetic’s show control tools. Its UI Designer feature enabled the creation of custom user panels, which Landreau says “makes it easier for show operators to handle the system.”
The Puy du Fou technical team has been familiar with Modulo Kinetic since 2016, and with support from programmers from So Warp could depend on the media server throughout the project in preparation for the grand opening in April 2023.
“Modulo Kinetic offers the advantage of being a comprehensive software with a vast range of possibilities thanks to its many functions,” says Landreau. “The 3D part is a major asset which allows us to program offline and save precious time during the programming phases. It’s always a pleasure to work with the Modulo Pi teams, not forgetting So Warp, who are always on the cutting edge and striving for perfection.”
Reliability is key for Puy du Fou, which welcomed 2.5 million visitors in 2023 and 2.8 million visitors in 2024.
“The hardware part of Modulo Kinetic is another important element in the chain and offers reliability already proven on previous installations. With this show set to be performed up to 8 times a day and hundreds of times a year, it’s crucial to count on the stability and reliability of the entire system,” says Landreau.
Earlier this year, Modulo Pi celebrated the launch of the new Museum of Art + Light in Manhattan, Kansas, US. This modern art museum presents a unique combination of traditional, digital, and immersive artworks. The debut exhibition in its immersive gallery uses sophisticated technology to honour the Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
