Dataton’s award-winning multi-display production and playback system, WATCHOUT, has been utilised to transform a Warsaw museum’s glass façade into a giant projection screen.
When it became clear that plans for the grand opening of POLIN, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, included large-scale, multiple-source projections that responded to live music and lighting, Warsaw-based AV company, PRO4MEDIA, was clear on its choice of presentation system.
“We have used WATCHOUT for many years and we knew straightaway that it would be the right solution for the grand opening at the new Museum of the History of Polish Jews, ” reports PRO4MEDIA owner, Marek Wasilewski. “Image processing was the basis of our assignment, but we also needed a solution to combine visualizations that were being created live with live music!” Well-known Polish street artists created the content for the main architectural mapping and this was supported by a live camera feed on two flanking screens – all synched by WATCHOUT.
Wasilewski admits that the projection surface was a challenge. “The transparent glass wall of the building of the Museum is partially flat, and on the edges there are boards of glass placed at an angle of 45 degrees, ” he explains. “Using projectors directly, as we usually do, was impossible – the light was simply going through the glass and getting into the building. Other angles were also hard to find, because of the flashing effects.”
Once they had decided on the position of the four Barco HDQ-2K40 projectors, PRO4MEDIA could start working with the mapping itself. “WATCHOUT's possibilities, such as edge-blending, warping and so on, were very helpful to adjust the image to the façade’s curves and angles, ” says Wasilewski. A tree in front of the building was to play a key role in the visuals during the live concerts. PRO4MEDIA used a dedicated Barco HDF-W26 projector to light the tree. In all, there were seven projectors in the WATCHOUT rig and 222, 000 lumens.
PRO4MEDIA has used the system on hundreds of events since 2009. “It's a reliable, stable solution, which can be used in various ways, because each event is different. The POLIN opening attracted a large audience and the reactions to the show were both emotional and enthusiastic – just as we wanted.”
Lars Sandlund, COO at Dataton describes POLIN as “another impressive application that shows the ingenuity of our users and the versatility of our product. And the advanced mapping features in new WATCHOUT, previewed at ISE 2015, are going to add a whole new set of possibilities for these kinds of projects!”
Images courtesy of PRO4MEDIA
