Fans of the Washington Wizards and the Washington Capitals have been treated to a state-of-the-art projection mapping experience at the Capital One Arena.
Quince Imaging chose Christie solutions for the dual-sport projection mapping system.
Fan engagement was a key consideration for Capital One Arena’s owner, Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), as two of its teams, the Wizards and the Capitals, headed towards the 2018 playoffs.
“With an arena renovation coming up, our goal was to enhance the fan experience and we have always had the projection system at the top of our list,” says Hunter Lochmann, MSE Senior Vice President of Marketing.
As both teams were having outstanding seasons, the decision was taken to temporarily install the system for the playoffs, and permanently install it during the off-season.
Quince had just a couple of weeks’ notice and only one day on site to set up. To be confident of a quick turnaround, the company looked to Christie technology.
“The one key thing that helps us meet these deadlines consistently is having products like Christie Pandoras Box and Boxer projectors,” explains CJ Davis, Creative Director, Quince Imaging. “We know how they work. We know we can rely on them to deliver what we expect – that’s why we like it.”
Feedback on the projection was ‘tremendous’
The system had to be dual-sport to cope with projection mapping on the ice hockey rink for the Capitals and on the hardwood basketball court for the Wizards. It also had to be capable of adjusting to the different size of each surface.
“The real time compositing and warping tools of Pandoras Box ensures that, from an operations standpoint, it’s really just a few button clicks to transform,” comments Eric Gazzillo, Producer, Quince Imaging.
“Once you lay down that canvas of pixels and light across the whole rink, and then quickly switch over to basketball, you are harnessing the power of Pandoras Box to transform it into a basketball arrangement. Changes on the fly, going through player headshots, going through player line-ups. That’s all Pandoras Box.”
According to Lochmann, feedback from both teams on the projection was ‘tremendous’.
“We were very happy with all of our 3D capabilities during the playoffs, including the Christie solutions,” he added.
