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PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS
NEWS
Video and Lighting Loom Large in Singapore
SINGAPORE — The Opening Ceremony
at the Beijing Olympics may have taken
the global spotlight this August (See story,
cover), but there were other large spectacles
fusing video and digital lighting in
Asia last month, and one of the biggest
took place just the next day, in celebration
of Singapore’s National Day, Aug. 9.
The National Day Parade marked the
43rd year since Singapore gained its independence
in 1965, beginning the tiny
island state’s transformation from its
humble origins to one of the world’s great
cosmopolitan cities.
The Show Company was the official
LED Display & Multimedia Control Systems
vendor for The 2008 National Day Celebrations
and was appointed the task of providing
everything to run the visual aspects
of the show. Jo Gan, company director of
The Show Company, specified the Barco’s
T-20 outdoor LED display to meet the requirements
of the show.
‘‘Given the magnitude of the show
and the stringent benchmarks associated
with a national event like this, where the
entire nation from the president, cabinet
ministers to the common citizen is in attendance,
the show demands nothing but
the very best the industry can offer,” Gan
said. In her view, “there was no alternative
to a Barco system.’’
The T-20 system was installed on site
and subjected to operational tests for
two months prior to the show. “The stage
was located just meters from the bay and
we were wondering if drastic changes in
temperature and humidity levels in our
hot tropical weather might cause system
stability issues.” Despite those concerns,
the T-20 performed without fail through
eight weeks of field testing through heat,
humidity and occasional stormy weather.
The Show Company’s 192 module T-20
System was assembled quickly due to the
large tile size and easy-assembly mechanics.
Measuring 15.4 meters wide by 11.5
meters high, it stood as the largest single
daylight LED Display screen ever built for
the National Day Parade celebrations.
A Lesson in Streaming Media, Learned the Hard Way
The recording studio at St. Olaf College faces fewer server
capacity issues than it did in the past.
NORTHFIELD, MN — St. Olaf College
is relying on StreamGuys, Inc., a streaming
media and content delivery provider,
to manage its live and on-demand video
streaming for live concerts featuring
many of the college’s music ensembles,
including the St. Olaf Choir and Sing For
Joy, a weekly half-hour radio program.
StreamGuys also hosts live and on-demand
streams for daily chapel services,
guest lectures and commencements
among other events.
St. Olaf is a liberal arts college founded
in 1874 by the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, which is known for its
programs in music and academics. Jeffrey
O’Donnell, the college’s director of
broadcast media and the executive producer
of Sing for Joy, turned to Stream-
Guys after experiencing server capacity
issues with a live concert stream that
had an unusually high audience demand
compared to previous events.
“We learned the hard way,” O’Donnell
said. “We held a big concert for a building
re-dedication on campus and were using
our own servers to stream the event live.
There was so much demand for bandwidth
that the entire campus network shut down.
“I knew of StreamGuys from their reputation
in the public radio industry, and
our campus IT department found their
pricing competitive and reasonable,”
O’Donnell added. “They have focused
specifically on our technical needs, and
the server capacity they provide allows
a large volume of users to access our
streams around the world. They have
eliminated any problems we had before
in accommodating our online audience.”
A Barco T-20 LED video display measuring 15.4 meters by 11.5 meters helped Singapore celebrate its 43 rd year of independence.
Edinburgh Castle Animated with Projected Images
continued from page 55
of tiny dots of projected light out onto
the architecture of the castle. This design
gave the castle shapes a visual overlay of
traditional Indian iconography, supplemented
by a red lighting wash across the
structure.
Ashton also created a visual backdrop
of Viking ships and warriors for
the King’s Guard of Norway. They made
their entrance amid smoke, flares and
projections of two over-sized Viking
styled sentries on both sides of the
castle gates.
The Queen Victoria School from
Dunblane, founded to commemorate
Scottish soldiers and sailors who fell
in the Boer War, celebrated its centenary
at the 2008 Tattoo with a display
of piping, drumming and dancing. This
was accompanied by projections of the
school’s first pupil and its crest.
More crests, taken from the castle itself,
were projected during the Massed
Military Band’s performance, which led
to the show’s finale.
The Evening Hymn precedes the
Lone Piper who closes the show. For
that performance, Ashton used images
of the bronze friezes surrounding
the shrine in the Scottish War Memorial,
which is located at the top of the
Castle.
That frieze, designed by Morris and
Alice Meredith Williams, contains about
60 representations of men and women
from all ranks and services who served
in World War I. PIGI artwork created
from the photos was projected across
the castle walls, helping to make a closing
statement.
“The Edinburgh Military Tattoo is
one of the highlights of E/T/C’s year,
and of mine as a designer,” said Ashton.
“It is a world class event.” The visual projections
have become an annual part of
the Tattoo since projected media were
first added in 2005.
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2008 SEPTEMBER PLSN
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