Vivid Sydney 2015, described as the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas, delivered another helping of the large, the bright and the dynamic. Technical Direction Company provided video expertise in cutting-edge mapping techniques and key video technology across an unprecedented 10km distance as the 18-day festival expanded into new Chatswood and Central Park precincts.
Michael Hassett, Managing Director of TDC, said: “This year TDC delivered over 70 high-resolution projectors, four types of media servers as well as technical infrastructure including two automation platforms, each with custom hardware and electronics to power the video projections.”
Anthony Pellizzari, TDC’s Technical Project Manager for this year’s festival continues: “We had some additional challenges this year, with crane lifts, street closures for installs and six new sites to manage.”
TDC ate the tech challenges for breakfast according to Steve Cain, Head Technician and Media Specialist: “As well as site specific challenges, we had to overcome reflective surfaces such as glass from other buildings or water. It was a challenge to converge multiple projectors onto curved roofs, perform colour correction onto dark bricks and colour balancing of multiple projector models to match these evenly. Seeing the final result with people interacting with projections was really rewarding — something that we’re very proud of,” he says.
Cutting-edge Music Acts: TDC supplied a creative video package including 7mm LED video wall displays, six Barco projectors and Catalyst media servers for the performances of three headline acts at Vivid Live, including the solo debut of Daniel Johns, singer Sufjan Stevens and Flume.Central Park: Working with Ample Projects, TDC projected street art from a variety of artists such as indigenous artist Reko Rennie and Beastman onto the impressive heritage-listed brewery façade.Chatswood: The festival expanded into Chatswood in the city’s north for the very first time. Nicholas Tory, Creative Director at Ample Projects: “Together with TDC we delivered a 6.5 minute animated 3D projection show, a resolution of nearly 8000 pixels wide, with synchronised sound across a multi-faceted stainless steel clad facade. Additionally we projected on an 8 x 30m wide staircase.”Life Story: New to Vivid, a projection onto the Argyle Cut showing BBC Earth’s: Life Story TV series. The BBC worked with Spinifex Group to bring this project to life. Sueann Parker, Production Manager at Spinifex Group noted that extensive testing was required in the lead up. “Neither Spinifex nor TDC had projected at this site previously. As a result TDC required warped test footage months prior to the launch so as to best assess the split of the eight projectors utilised inside the tunnel. Our animation was then created based on the mask they supplied. Months in the making it all lined up perfectly in the test week leading up to the festival opening.”Enchanted Sydney: Award-winning experiential agency, Spinifex Group partnered with TDC for their technical expertise to create a tribute to Sydney’s illustrious flora and fauna on to the façade of Custom House for Vivid Sydney.Mechanised Colour Assemblage: transformed the Museum of Contemporary Art façade into a series of sound and colour ‘machines’ that created a continuously morphing listening and viewing experience. TDC provided ultra-high resolution projectors and media servers for artwork created by Sydney artist Rebecca Baumann and Paris-based art and design collective Danny Rose. “TDC supplied powerful video projectors to show our 8K resolution media for our 3D-mapped experience. The final result was a splendid video projection where the audience could walk right up to the façade and see the artistic detail at very close range,” says Sergio Carrubba, Managing Director and Founder at Danny Rose.INTER/Play: Combining architecture and art, live graphics created by The Propaganda Mill were projected onto the historic Cadmans Cottage in The Rocks.
VIVID EYE WATERING FACTS:
• Video projection used 7,464,960,000 total pixels onto the famous architecture of 10 buildings across Sydney
• 8976sqm of architecturally mapped video projection
• A total of 2,000,000 ANSI lumens, a measurement of projection light
• 1.8km of 3 phase power cable, and 2.5km of fibreoptic cable
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