Digital Projection, a specialist in laser projectors, has shared details of a cinematic experience at Astra Film Festival in 2023 which was powered by its super bright 1-Chip DLP M-Vision laser projectors.
The Astra Film Festival is an amazing annual event hosted in Sibiu, Romania, formerly a European capital of culture. The festival is a major event in the European film calendar. The programme lasts for more than a week and attracts moviegoers of all ages to locations throughout the city.
A centrepiece of the festival is Full Dome, a 300-square-metre multimedia projection dome located in Sibiu’s main square. Each year, it presents a completely immersive 360-degree audio-visual experience featuring the festival’s cinematic highlights.
Camilo De Anna, technical editing manager and head stage manager at system integrator NewMedia, says: “As a Full Dome professional, it’s always a pleasure to discover new and exciting immersive films every year. You can’t do a Full Dome without projectors, and this year we were lucky enough to partner with Digital Projection.”
World-class screening
The Astra Film Festival specifies that films screened in the Full Dome be of world-class quality and intensity. To meet this requirement, NewMedia employed a set of six Digital Projection M-Vision 27000 WU projectors. These were selected for their image and colour quality, dependability, and brightness. The six projectors were positioned around the dome’s perimeter and projected images onto the 360° screen with unparalleled coverage, quality, and brilliance.
One of the key reasons NewMedia chose to collaborate with Digital Projection was the dependability of the projectors.
De Anna explains: “I’ve worked with several projection brands over the years, and Digital Projection is the one that has never let me down. Projectors are sensitive pieces of equipment, and events don’t treat them well. Between travelling to different countries and setting them up, it’s very easy to end up with last-minute problems. However, to date, I haven’t needed to repair anything or to change the projectors in the middle of an event.”
NewMedia found that the M-Vision projectors offered an ideal combination of projection power, with a manoeuvrable and lightweight design.
“I found that the M-Vision laser projectors were perfectly manageable with three or even two people, helping enormously with the set-up and dismantling of an ephemeral event like this,” comments De Anna.
Delighting audiences
The Full Dome showcased a varied selection of films. These ranged from documentaries to musical experiences, cartoons, and films depicting the vastness of space.
Backstage, a ScreenBerry server deconstructed and rebuilt the image to match the dome’s appropriate mapping. HDMI fibre optic cables connected from the server to their respective projector, and projected the image onto the internal projection liner. This guaranteed the projection surface was as close to the screen as possible for exceptional quality.
De Anna says: “The dome itself is not that complicated a system for the projection path, but the difficulty lies in the various constraints that this format imposes, which is why we have to rely on the quality equipment. M-Vision laser projectors gave us the peace of mind of knowing that the equipment we relied on was going to work every time we switched it on. Digital Projection has always ensured us this reliability and for me, that’s a luxury.”
The more seasoned spectators who visit the Full Dome annually are usually hard to impress. Even these visitors were astonished by the result, according to De Anna, who was thrilled with the outcome. The M-Vision laser projectors also allowed the NewMedia team to add extra details which were enjoyed by the audience.
He adds: “But if I had to talk about the best feedback, I would say it’s the kids. Their laughter and marvelling right next to us working from the control room was a huge source of satisfaction.”
Digital Projection recently revealed two of its most advanced laser projectors to date at ISE 2024 in Barcelona. The firm, which is a brand of Delta, unveiled its all-new E-Vision 16000i WU and a new TITAN line of projectors at the leading event for the AV and systems integration sector.
