New PIGI projection world record
for Jules Verne Centennial
Paris-based E\T\C Audiovisuel supplied 44 PIGI DDRA 6kW large format projectors with double rotating scrollers for a high profile extravaganza celebrating the centenary of Jules Verne’s death.
It was the largest number of PIGI projectors ever utilised on a single show to date and also involved nearly 2 kilometres of projected film artwork!
The event saw Paris’s giant Stade de France transformed into a huge volcanic crater for the multimedia performance, based on Verne’s epic, “Journey to The Centre of the Earth”. It featured live actors, inflatables, aerial performers, spectacular visual and sonic technology, plus fire effects by famed French pyrotechnics artists, Groupe F.
Projection was central to the 70 minute show. It was used as a key scene and atmosphere-building tool, converting the sports stadium into a magical, environment and a backdrop against which the story could unfold - not an easy assignment!
Rather than the conventional projection onto screens or flat surfaces, show director Stéphane Vérité required there to be two seamless ‘rings’ of imaging, producing texturing and graphic representations, both of which completely encircled the stadium.
The centre of the stadium, representing the earth’s core, was the main playing field covered with fabric, undulated via multiple fans and air blowers placed underneath. Lighting changed its appearance and properties to represent earth, fire, water, etc.
Outside of the playing field, the main running track and first tiers of seating made up the first complete projection circle. Going upwards in the stadium, the audience occupied the second seating tier, which was then framed at the top by a second circle of projection onto the third and highest seating tier, effectively behind the audience. This sandwiched them between the two rings of projection.
All 44 projectors, run as 22 cross-fading pairs, were positioned all around the top of the third tier, projecting directly across to their opposite sides of the venue, and covering both upper and lower tiers. The images covered a total of 44,000 square metres across both rings.
Different lenses were utilised to deal with the size and throw variations in the projection, including sixteen 5:1 and twenty-eight 7:1 HD lenses. The images were soft-edged together seamlessly.
The show’s performance elements were staged on 4 mobile stages that travelled around in front of the audience tier. These shifted position as the story progressed. It also included giant inflatable characters from the book and aerial performances.
The PIGI artwork, designed by Romain Sosso, visually represented the narrative with geological atmospheres such as flowing lava and molten rock, a giant mushroom forest, or a labyrinth of underground tunnels, and entailed an impressive total of 1.9 kilometres of film. Each machine’s double rotating scroller was loaded with two 25 metre film scrolls.
Ten E\T\C Audiovisuel technicians plus ten local crew members, under the supervision of crew chief Patrick Matuszek, completed the get-in in two days. The PIGIs were programmed by Christophe Aubry and David Baillot using ETC’s OnlyCue control system and the shows (2 per night over 2 nights in December) were run by four PIGI engineers.
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