Professional Lighting & Production - Spring 2018 | Page 22

22 PL&P
A Spectacle on Any Surface
Westbury National’s Large-Scale Projection Mapping Portfolio | By Andrew King
A
dragon descends from a dark
mountainside cave and bathes
hundreds of spectators below in
its fiery breath. Cool animations
and player highlights cover
the entire ice surface while a pumping
soundtrack blares through the speakers a
few minutes before the opening face-off of
an NHL playoff game. An iconic building in
the centre of a city showcases historic foot-
age from times past as residents proudly
look on.
Each of these applications represents a
unique multimedia experience enabled by
large-scale projection mapping, a process
by which content relayed from one or more
video projectors is manipulated to turn
virtually any type of surface into a display
for various forms of visual content.
Based in Toronto, Westbury National
has become a go-to leader in the field of
large-scale projection mapping for a variety
22 | Spring 2018
of clients across North America. From cities
and urban facilities to sports venues and
theme parks to corporate applications and
beyond, Westbury provides the technolog-
ical infrastructure and expertise to enable a
wide array of clients to deliver these types
of engaging and entertaining visual experi-
ences to their desired audiences.
What Is
Projection
Mapping?
The process of projection mapping –
sometimes known as video mapping or
object-based augmented reality – begins
within a specialized software environment.
The two- or three-dimensional object
that will act as the projection surface – a
building façade, geological feature, theatre
stage, automobile, etc. – is spatially mapped
in the virtual environment. The software
can then manipulate the desired video
content and interact with the projector(s)
to display a seamless image that adds extra
dimensions, optical illusions, or a sense of
movement to an otherwise static object. As
such, the video can interact with the unique
features of the surface, or minimize them to
create the illusion of a typical flat display.
These spectacles can also include a
complementing lighting package and
shows and are often combined with, or
even triggered by, an audio soundtrack for a
more immersive multimedia narrative.