"Shark Week" case study. - Christie Digital Systems

Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week”
25th anniversary celebration
Case study
Customer:
Discovery Channel
Location:
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Industry/Market:
• Events and large venues
• Rental staging
Partners:
• BARTKRESA Design
• Coolux Media Systems
Requirements:
• Bright images
• Ease of use
• Reliable performance
Projected shark silhouettes moved menacingly through the pool.
Shark! Shark in the pool!
The average television series only runs for
about five years. So when Discovery Channel’s
“Shark Week” marked its 25th anniversary
in August 2012, Discovery Channel threw a
celebratory event at the Beverly Hilton in Los
Angeles, and played host to friends of the
network, producers, the press and members
of the Television Critics Association.
Sharks were the theme of the evening.
Guests ate shark-fin-topped cupcakes and
sharks’ favorite food — sushi. Event sponsor,
Volkswagen, provided a Beetle-shaped
shark cage, and a giant sand sculpture at the
entrance featured a fearsome shark.
swimming menacingly through the water.
The projection projects for the event required
seven Christie ® projectors.
Six Christie Roadster S+20Ks 3-chip DLP ®
projectors were stacked in two 1:3 blends
for double brightness, and used to show the
projected video on the hotel’s façade.
“I love the [Christie] Nitro. It was such a
good tool for this application.”
Bart Kresa
Principal, BARTKRESA Design
Summary:
For the 25th anniversary of “Shark
Week”, Discovery Channel wanted to
set a fantastic scene for guests, network
representatives and the press. Of course
sharks had to feature in the décor.
Products:
• Christie Roadster S+20K projector
• Christie Roadster HD20K-J projector
• Christie YK200 dual-arm yoke
Results:
Clever and effective use of Christie
projectors and a Christie dual-arm
yoke created an ultra-bright projection
display on the hotel’s façade and filled
the hotel’s pool with menacing, moving
shark silhouettes.
The poolside façade of the Beverly Hilton
served as a giant screen where video footage
of sharks swimming, jumping, biting and
circling set an exciting tone. Of course the
pool was filled with sharks too.
Bart Kresa, principal at BARTKRESA Design
created a projected school of sharks
A Christie Roadster HD20K-J projector
used with a Christie YK200 dual-arm yoke
projected the pool’s sharks. Kresa states with
pleasure “The reason that I love [Christie]
Nitro is because it moves a 20K projector.
And in this event… in order to do this across
the whole pool, we probably would have

had to set up six 20K projectors. With the
[Christie] Nitro we can use one projector and
then create an animation. When we move the
animation and the projector around, it looks
natural. The sharks are moving around the
pool but it sort of gives the sense that the
whole pool is filled with an image.”
Designed for staging and event applications,
Christie Nitro Solutions has three yoke
models to choose from. Each yoke provides
a platform to move and control a variety of
Christie video projectors with light outputs
ranging from 5,700 to 20,000 lumens.
The Christie YK200 yoke used with the
Christie Roadster 3-chip DLP models is the
brightest moving digital luminaire system
on the market. With this yoke system, users
can display images between 12,000 and
20,000 ANSI lumens on almost any surface —
including the bottom of a filled pool.
“Using a Christie YK200 yoke with a Christie
Roadster HD20K-J projector to move the
sharks around the pool means we can use
a single projector as opposed to using
several projectors to do the same thing.”
Joel St. Denis
product manager, Christie
The Christie YK200 system can be controlled
with DMX protocol, so users can integrate
and control lighting equipment and video
projectors easily with the same console.
These versatile yokes can be flown, rigged or
set up at floor level.
The “Shark Week’ projection display in the
pool was controlled using a Pandora’s Box
media manager and server. Jared Leunis of
Coolux Media Systems explains that “…the
Pandora’s Box media manager and server
controlled the movement of the Christie
yoke. So it controlled the sharks’ movement
throughout the pool as well as the playback
of the sharks and moved between multiple
pieces of content while everything stayed
synchronized.”
Commenting on the technologies used
for the “Shark Week” celebration, Kresa
approvingly notes that “We’ve been doing
projection work for close to 20 years now. We
specialize in architectural projection design.
We work in different environments…. Five
years ago this work was quite a bit more
difficult than now because we had to measure
and calculate everything, and everything had
to be very very precise. The cool thing about
the new technology is that working with
digital projectors and with digital tools we
can predesign everything….”
Contact Christie
Contact us today to find out how your
organization can benefit from Christie solutions.
This glowing shark was joined by a whole school
of sinister silhouettes.
Stacked 1:3 projection blends displayed jawdropping
images on the hotel’s facade.
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Copyright 2012 Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc. All rights reserved. All brand names and product names are trademarks, registered trademarks
or tradenames of their respective holders. Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc.’s management system is registered to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
Performance specifications are typical. Due to constant research, specifications are subject to change without notice.
Printed in Canada on recycled paper. Shark Week Sept 12