“Ultimately you will be able to create a live show with a person
in the VR game having their view broadcast live onto green
screen,” says Parnell. “We’re working on it. It is really hard
to do but it will be cracked. I’m sure there are TV game show
producers working on this now.”
Projection mapping
The resolutions and accuracy of projection mapping techniques
are always improving, allowing the creation of more striking
effects. Holition, for example, recently claimed the first
successful projection mapping of a car in daylight at the BMW
Museum, Munich.
Focus 21’s Voykovich recalls seeing a giant pipe organ projected
on the full length of a London orchestra hall interior and
appeared to be playing in real time. “This is seemingly simple
but can be extremely powerful when synced with spatial audio,”
he says.
Instead of mapping projection to a static object, like a building,
or a car, the emerging use of projection tracking creates a
movable projected canvas.
“This involves using a media server and tracking cameras
which tracks certain marked points,” explains Dew. “The
system learns the size and shape of the object it is following and
recognises differences, generating data for the media server
to compute which is then used to create the live adjusting
projected image.”
There are already tools like BlackTrax that do this for large
scale tracking in performance spaces, but Really Creative Media
has helped to develop “affordable and transportable” ways of
using this in smaller deployments like conference venues and
exhibitions. An exhibition in Abu Dhabi, for example, used
actors and the projection tracking technique on poster cards to
help attract people to a stand with fun and changing projected
content.
Further to this, a new competition dedicated to showcasing the
finest in projection mapping has been launched as a cooperative
venture between Amsterdam Light Festival, Integrated Systems
Events and the RAI Amsterdam.
The World Masters of Projection Mapping will take place from
14 January 2018 until 9 February 2018. Work from five competing
artists will be shown on the facade of EYE Filmmuseum, in
Amsterdam. The challenge for the artists will be to create a
work of video art to be mapped onto the extraordinary three-
dimensional architecture of the EYE Filmmuseum, to be
experienced from multiple viewpoints.
The projection mapping will be fully visible for the public
from boats sailing on the IJ, the quay near Central Station
and the Amsterdam Tower. The competition will also be
streamed in HD, live on the internet. On 9 February the winner
will be announced on the final day of the ISE 2018 at the RAI
Amsterdam. The winning entry, alongside the finalists, will also
be projected on the Friday evening to mark the end of ISE 2018.
Knowledge is key
With the unrelenting pace and variety of AV technology
entering the market, keeping ahead of trends presents both a
great challenge and exciting opportunity. While it might be the
newest, latest technology, you need to be able to take a step back
and ask yourself is it really worth it? What’s the return?
“Technology is great until it crashes,” says Parnell. “The biggest
challenge is building in the redundancy - especially with newer,
untried methods - and making sure everything is 100% reliable.”
Voykovich believes the extreme diversity of non-agnostic
devices is putting pressure on AV suppliers by increasing the
amount of investment they have to make in kit.
“Audio and lighting changes are easier to keep up with, as
universal standards in connectivity and design are much
more established,” he says. “But video is evolving all the time
leading to a lot of fragmentation. No ‘one size fits all’ solution is
available. We are seeing a greater response from manufacturers
to this problem for consumer technologies, with cross platform
capability emerging but I think they need to bring this focus to
the trade.”
As the largest AV show in the world, ISE 2018 [6-9 February,
Amsterdam] is a great place to start. Visitors can expect to see
further developments in OLED technology and the very latest
tools for techniques from projection mapping to drone filming.
The
Score Magazine
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