Painting with Light continues its active collaboration with entertainment tech giant
Panasonic through the current European Media and Entertainment Roadshow initiative
which is showcasing the brand’s latest, high-powered projectors.
The projectors work in conjunction with three exciting, cutting-edge technologies that
the Belgian creative design practice has invested in and is using in innovative ways!
These are BlackTrax remote tracking, d3 high-performance media servers and Notch
real-time interactive video content.
The specialist technical and programming skills needed to optimise and run these
systems are also being provided by Painting with Light, and the overall project is
being managed for them by Wouter Verhulst.
This creative/technical partnership was first seen at the Integrated Systems Europe
(ISE) exhibition, Amsterdam in February, where Painting with Light’s creative director
Luc Peumans initiated a fully choreographed and directed live show, demonstrating
simultaneous tracking and projecting onto multiple objects.
It was the first time that a combination of live tracking and projecting onto flying
objects had been achieved using d3 and BlackTrax technologies.
Panasonic’s Visual Systems Europe marketing specialists Hartmut Kulessa and Thomas
Vertommen were also integrally involved in the whole project and saw several other
potential applications for this model.
The live show at ISE was a massive success, creating lots of engagement and interest,
so a re-scaled version was fine-tuned and presented two months later on the
Panasonic stand at the 2017 Prolight+Sound expo in Frankfurt.
Once again, it was extremely well-received and proved a big hit with the public.
Now, the same show is touring throughout Europe as an integral element of
Panasonic’s Media and Entertainment Roadshow, which started in Birmingham, UK and
is scheduled to visit at least twelve key European cities.
The technical setup features a BlackTrax system with six infrared cameras and five
active beacons (three live and two spares), all rigged on a ground-supported
structure, plus a d3 4x4pro media server.
The cameras pick up the IR signals emitted by the beacons and send the coordinates
to the d3 server via RTTrPM (Real-Time Tracking Protocol for Motion). This matches up
and tracks video content in real time.
Three d3 outputs are utilised – one for the back, feeding a PT-RZ31K projector; the
second for the front, feeding a PT-RZ12K and the third sending signals to the all-new
PT-RZ21K 20.000-lumen laser projector.
Different objects are tracked – including a helmet, a wand, a plate and two people –
through a total of six scenes with varying levels of content and interaction. The show
also features special video content created by Painting with Light, using Notch and
other software, showing the power and flexibility of these systems working together.
The show demonstrates the precision, detail and clarity of the projection in
challenging live situations, working in the context of the immediate environment and
it also illustrates how a number of symbiotic technologies can be harnessed and
utilised in fun and engaging ways.
The live show is followed by a short technical demo on the tracking/mapping, then a
Q&A session and Roadshow guests are also invited to take a closer look at the setup.
