African Games Algiers, July 2007
The ETC team were called in to project onto the pitch for the Opening Ceremony of the 9th African Games in Algiers, staged in the City’s 5th July Olympic Stadium.
The OC event was watched live by Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, various politicians, sports celebrities, dignitaries and VIPs plus 64,000 enthusiastic sports fans. It was also broadcast live by Algerian national TV station Canal Algérie.
As night fell, they all discovered the magic of large format projection – courtesy of 18 PIGI 6 kW DDRA (double rotating scrollers) projectors installed by ETC.
The projectors were located at the top of the stadium, located in three towers each containing 6 projectors at three different levels. These projected onto 3 areas of the field of play, their spectacular images cover ring a fabric-clad surface area measuring 110 by 70 metres.
For control, ETC used their versatile OnlyCue software – the full system was installed in June, a month prior to the event, to ensure they were in place for the full rehearsal period.
“Our main challenge was to line up the 18 machines located on 3 different projection levels all offering different views and perspectives", explains Patrick Matuszek, Technical Director of ETC. This is one of the beauties of OnlyCue, which greatly enhances the speed at which this task can be achieved. Matuszek led the ETC crew for the event and also programmed and ran the OnlyCue system.
After the OC for the 2003 African Games in Nigeria, the Games Committee started the search for new creative and technical effects that could be fused with Algerian culture and African heritage to make the 2007 event a real ‘show-stopper’. Large format projection was one of those elements.
The 3 hour ceremony - artistically directed by Amar Behloul - opened with the Athletes Parade (representing the 52 participating countries) and was followed by a fully choreographed mixed-media show including lighting, projection fireworks, various solo and musical performances and several singing and dancing troupes, all of which filled the ‘field of play’ with movement, colour and sounds and delighted the audience.
Once it was dark, the high-impact, specially produced light and projection elements really kicked in.
Titled "Africa, Colors", the show storyline traced the history of the continent and the remarkable evolutions undergone by the African populations.
Special PIGI artwork was created in Paris by Isabelle Plouviez working closely with the show’s producers Yourprod (in Paris) and Méziane Lounis/MVision (in Algeria). The PIGI’s were each loaded up with 300 metres of film encompassing approximately 250 images per machine.
The Algiers Opening Ceremony has been hailed as one of the most visually exciting African Games events to date. | Click on the pictures for the large version |
