Barco, the technology company focusing on innovative visualisation solutions, has provided 30 of its newest laser projectors for a ground-breaking installation at Vivid Sydney in Australia.
The 2023 festival is themed Vivid Sydney, Naturally and is running from 26 May until 17 June. Technical Direction Company (TDC) have created a record-breaking installation to explore this theme, with the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest laser projection installation.
150 laser projectors are being used throughout the festival, including 30 innovative UDM-4K30 systems from Barco.
Projections celebrate the beauty of our natural world
The HMAS Vampire, Australia’s largest museum object, as well as Customs House, the ASN Clocktower, and Sydney Opera House will all be illuminated by over 150 laser projectors during the festival. All of these locations will display extraordinary artworks themed around Vivid Sydney, Naturally and which celebrate the beauty of our natural world.
Michael Hassett, founder and managing director at TDC, says: “Every year TDC evolves its technology offering and this year our project teams are very excited to be achieving a world first in laser projection. The Barco technology has standout features including high brightness, low latency processing and a robust design – plus Barco is the only projection system that meets our requirements for colour uniformity, reduced power consumption and return on investment.”
“Each year, we always provide manufacturers with some processing and operational suggestions for improvement in deployment which this year included low operational costs and monitoring using our TDC LiveView platform in order to operate the equipment from one central location. We are delighted to have that direct feedback included in the UDM-4K30 which visitors to Vivid Sydney will be the first to see in action anywhere.”
Gill Minervini, Vivid Sydney festival director, comments: “We always aim to improve the sensory experience for visitors to Vivid Sydney and one of the ways we do that is by partnering with technology experts like TDC. Experiencing the glorious vibrancy and fragility of our natural world has never been more important and we are thrilled that visitors are able to immerse themselves in the artworks deeper than ever before.”
“We greatly value our longstanding partnership with TDC and are more than happy to integrate their customer feedback into the design of our technology,” says Erdem Soyal, executive vice president, Barco Immersive Experience. “From all corners of the globe, we will be watching the results of this world-first deployment by the experts at TDC of the UDM-4K30 with great interest and wish everyone who visits Vivid Sydney the very richest of experiences.”
Vivid Sydney, which is in its 13th year, will present the Harbour City as a luminous fusion of creativity, innovation, and technology. From Friday 26 May until Saturday 17 June, there will be more than 300 events and activations covering light, music, and ideas. For the first time, the festival will also include food events.
Festival facts
Vivid Sydney is a huge event which is adopting best practices in video solutions and design. TDC say that:
- Each evening the festival projects over 3.5 million lumens of light
- Each evening, the festival produces 1 billion pixels of projection. In context – in the whole of 2022 TDC produced 230,000,000 pixels.
- Less power is being used than in 2022 – while there is 25% more projection coverage.
- Energy use has been reduced by over 150 kilowatts per hour (kWh) from 2022. To compare, an average household of four in Australia uses around 1.8 kWh.
- TDC’s head office in Alexandria, Sydney, has an innovative 100kw clean energy solar system.
- As an industry leader, TDC has used 30 of Barco’s newly launched laser projectors in the installation.
- Staff travel time is reduced through the remote monitoring system TDC Live View 24/7. This technology can monitor thousands of variables at over 20 sites – so staff only need to attend for real-time issues.
Barco celebrated a further collaboration with Culturespaces in April. Their new project, the digital art attraction Phoenix des Lumières in Dortmund, utilises over 100 Barco laser projectors.
Images courtesy of TDC – Technical Direction Company.
