TechnoMedia uses Christie HD projection and advanced 3D mapping for graduation ceremony at Effat University
Saudi Arabian events, conferences and exhibitions video production company, TechnoMedia Ltd, have produced an inspired show for the Effat University 2008 Graduation ceremony in Jeddah, using Christie HD projection and advanced 3D mapping technology as a backdrop. This was the first project in the Middle East to use the company’s 3D mapping technology.
“Of course 3D mapping has been around for quite some time, but we have developed our own in-house tools in order to provide this service at the best quality possible,” states the company’s CEO, Hadi Al Bahra.
Accustomed to working at the leading edge of hardware and software media delivery systems he specified two stacked Christie HD 8K projectors to handle the 3D mapping projection onto the stage. The native 1080 HD resolution 3-chip DLP® 8,000 ANSI lumen digital projector offers a variable contrast ratio of 1600-2000:1.
“The effect was sensational and the two projectors collectively provided 16,000 ANSI lumens for the entire stage,” he said.
TechnoMedia have only been working with the University since the beginning of this year, yet the graduation ceremony in the 700-capacity auditorium was the third event staged for them.
“We proposed the idea of 3D mapping projection to the University — and they agreed to have it as the main attraction of the graduation ceremony,” says Al Bahra. “It was a huge success.”
Each year TechnoMedia updates its inventory to allow the IT and events production team the opportunity to extend its design capabilities, and the company has now adopted the Christie HD family as its high-definition platform.
“In 2008 we wanted to start the Eyeliner 3D virtual hologram services, which required us to display media in HD resolution,” explained Al Bahra. Around the same time they purchased the first, of their two, Christie HD8K’s.
“We looked at a number of projector brands, but due to the technical capabilities of the Christie products — and the support of its after sales team based in the region — we decided to go with them. The HD8K’s gave us more than enough output, since we had full control of ambient lighting.”
He said he had been particularly impressed with the quality of the displayed images — particularly with multi projections — along with the technical specification, compact size, and ease of rigging.
At the graduation ceremony the Christie HD8K’s, were mounted on flight cases using the stacking cages and projecting in 16:9 aspect ratio using fixed 0.76:1 lens attachments. They took feeds from TechnoMedia’s own HD server.
All the media content was created using 3D Max and Adobe Creative Suite 3, and produced by the company’s media creative and production department. “We used a mixture of studio movie shots and digitally created media, and as a general principle used matte painting for old architecture, with flag and cloud animation.”
Rotoscoping techniques — manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it can be composted over another background — were used, along with other special effects. These were applied for certain sequences — for example the dramatic sequences of a girl who ignited the reveal. This was shot and recorded at TechnoMedia’s studio, and produced in MPEG2 format, under the company’s creative team director, Mohamed Azoon.
The company spent a week producing the media and a further three days developing the storyboard.
Summing up, Hadi Al Bahra said this certainly delivered the wow factor. “The audiences were amazed — you could feel it immediately the lights went up and the girl ‘jumped’ onto the top of the stage.” As a result, he envisages enormous scope in the region for future 3D holographic, virtual reality and interactive developments.
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