Barco, the global technology company, has provided its cutting edge projectors to help bring the largest festival of light, music and ideas in the Southern Hemisphere to life.
Barco is proud to announce that it’s innovative projection technology has been used by Australian entertainment technology brand Technical Direction Company (TDC) to bring to life Vivid Sydney, a spectacle of light, music and ideas. The festival delighted locals and international visitors alike in Sydney and takes place from 24th May to 15th June all around the city.
TDC is a leader in large scale projection mapping, LED video and technology and provided this expertise for several of the 50+ features in the event. The festival is an annual celebration of creativity and innovation which features immersive light installations and projections, alongside performances by musicians from around the world. It also includes an ideas forum with public talks and debates. Vivid Sydney attracts over 2 million visitors each year and is run by the local government’s tourism and events agency, Destinations NSW.
Projection mapping
Michael Hasset is the Founder and Managing Director at TDC. He says: “The use of projection mapping and video display – using projected light and images to turn buildings and architecture into dynamic art projects – has exploded over the past few years and Vivid Sydney is one of the top examples. We see this trend increasing with a larger focus on interactivity where the audience can really engage with technology and art.”
“We’ve approached this year in a completely fresh, new way – trying to achieve something even better,” says Steve Cain, Head Engineer and Media Server Specialist at TDC. “We’re switching most architectural landmarks over to the 3D workflow with disguise media servers, and away from 2D playback systems.
“That allows us to take advantage of the most recent advanced in media server technology – 3D modelling, for example. Those features give us far more accurate pre-production planning and projection studies, allowing us to deliver increased projection output. We’re also using disguise’s OmniCal camera assisted line-up systems, and that, together with a multi-skilled team, has helped us get sites up and running far more quickly and efficiently.
City-wide locations
The iconic locations at which the innovative displays could be seen this year included the Sydney Opera House; the Museum of Contemporary Art; Customs House; Argyle Cut; Taronga Zoo; Cadmans Cottage; and the Rocks branch of the English, Scottish and Australian Chartered Bank.
TDC deployed a kaleidoscope of colours reproduced by 70 Barco projectors; 1,600,000 lumens; 161,280,000 pixels; 36 km of cable. “We’re shooting around 1,600,000 lumens of light out with a staggering 161, 280,000 pixels transforming buildings across Sydney into impressive works of art,” says Alex Rendell, one of TDC’s Project Manager’s for Vivid Sydney.
“We’re also proud to be running a city-wide monitoring system, our TDC Live View automation platform developed by TDC for show synchronisation, together with real-time monitoring and reporting,” he added, noting that TDC had laid some 36 kilometres of cable and fielded a crew of around 30 technical staff.
“We designed a system that sees 14 large LED screens deployed throughout the city that are accessible via the cloud from a single point, and that enables the same messaging to be displayed on each LED screen.. it is exciting to trial this system at Vivid Sydney,” added TDC’s Technical Services and New Media Manager, Drew Ferors.
Barco’s cutting edge technology is no stranger to large-scale outdoor events. The company’s products were also in use at Glastonbury festival this summer, where they brought Arcadia’s latest project to life.
