Think lighting your event means simply flipping on a light switch? Think again. Our event lighting experts share how you can make your event look stunning with the use of pinspot lighting technology.

 

What is pinspot event lighting?

A Pinspot light is an individual computerised table light that can change colour, patterns and position throughout the event. They’re a great option for gala dinners, weddings and social events and add extra wow-factor to dramatically change the look and feel of the table décor.

How pinspot lighting technology can add drama and style to your event

From a simple white light focused onto the centrepiece, to a highly choreographed schedule for each table to change colour or patterns, pinspot lighting gives you endless opportunities to get add some drama to your event. Suspended above each table is an LED light that is capable of moving and focusing to wherever the table may be placed. Its colour can then be chosen as one set colour or can change throughout the night at pre-determined times. On top of this, clients can choose to have an open circle of light or choose from a selection of striking patterns to cast beautiful shapes onto the table and centerpieces, making the table a styled feature.

Awards nights can utilise the changing colours of pinspot lighting onto the tables to increase the exctiement levels and anticipation of award announcements. Weddings will benefit from subtle moving patterns on the floral centerpieces. And social events can have corporate or club colours projected onto every table. The combinations and creative concepts are endless! 

Here are our top tips for using pin spots to put your event in the spotlight. 

1. Pre planning with your AV experts

When considering table lighting options, it’s important to visit your venue at a similar time of day to when your event will be held. That way you will get a clear idea of what the light will be like in the room on the event night. Look around the room and see where the fixed lighting is focused. Lights that illuminate the walls, windows, and ceiling can draw attention away from the centre of the room. Pin spots help to keep your guests’ focus on the tables and each other. This is one part of the lighting design process Staging Connections team of AV technicians goes through in planning for each event. As each venue provides a different environment, each event requires a tailored lighting solution. Therefore, it’s important you consider partnering with an AV provider who knows your venue well so you can be sure you’re getting the best lighting solution that will meet your expectations.

2. Use colour

Think outside your event colour palette when you use pinspot lighting. For example, if you’ve used a particular colour throughout the event, you may like to avoid this colour with your pinspots as it may be too much of one colour and wash away the impact. It’s also a good idea to consider colours that complement all skin tones, like magenta or a soft rose, rather than yellow or green.

Take advantage of the effect colour can have on the atmosphere by changing the shades through the course of the night. For example, if your cocktail hour starts around sunset, you can splash your room with golden tones. During dinner, consider soft lighting that will mimic flickering candlelight.

3. Programmed lighting changes

A great way to add excitement and anticipation, particularly at award ceremonies is to use programmed lighting changes in the count-down to announcements. It’s a great way to highlight tables where winners are sitting as their award is presented.

4. Event styling with pinspot lighting

Lighting your centrepiece with pin spots can make them look like pieces of modern art. This works particularly well if you centrepieces have glass or reflective elements to add an interesting glow to each arrangement.
Work with your Encore Event Technologies event designer to figure out which type of pinspot will best suit your event. You’ll get an event environment that’s bound to impress.

Additional lighting options

If you need to raise the profile of your company brand or message at your event, you may like to consider additional lighting products like gobos. These can be used to create illuminated logos on your dance floor or entrance feature. For weddings, gobos can also be used for the bride and grooms initials, wedding date, or any other wedding motifs.

Recommended: What is a gobo?

Quality counts when it comes to event lighting

When it comes to event lighting it’s vital you can be sure of a quality, dependable safe product. Encore only uses the best quality lighting equipment and manufacturers for our events and events held at our partner venues. This is important because these products are dependable and give a far superior effect to lower quality brands offering simple wash lights which can cause problems or safety issues in the long run.

Learn more about Encore’s stage and lighting solutions and lighting installations and activations.

Showcase of pinspots at the InterContinental Adelaide.

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See also:

• 7 Lighting Tips for Your Event
• Conference lighting: from basics to brilliance
• 4 lighting ideas for events

See how we used custom table projection mapping to create an extraordinary dining experience for this year’s Living Grand dinner at Grand Hyatt Melbourne; delivered a holographic-like experience for the Top Secret 2019 Dinner in Canberra, built a 48m wide custom stage set for Volkswagen and so much more.

Below you’ll see a snapshot of some the amazing work our teams produce to help inspire your next events! If you have any questions about the events or our solutions please get in touch with our National Sales Director, Michael Magafa .

VICTORIA
Living Grand Client Appreciation
Venue: Grand Hyatt Melbourne

Encore had the pleasure of partnering with Hyatt Australia to deliver a unique culinary and visual journey for its VIP clients as part of the annual Living Grand event. Hosted at Grand Hyatt Melbourne in February, Encore created the immersive experience by combining audio visual theatrics, lighting design and creative styling with the world-class custom projection mapping to stimulate sight, sounds, taste, small and touch.

Watch the video below to re-live the Living Grand Dinner 2019

48 VIPs were led down a dark tunnel into a dimly lit room, surrounded by black drapes with ambient music playing in the background. The room was sparse, with minimal styling and theming building intrigue as to what was to follow.

Once guests were seated, the journey began, completely immersing them in the sounds and visuals, complimenting the menu course by course.

The entree took guests underwater with sounds of the ocean filling the room and swimming fish flawlessly projection mapped onto the tables and drapes. Then when the sorbet was served, it was accompanied by images and sounds of ice breaking and shattering throughout the room.

The main course was themed fire and smoke. Diners were blindfolded before the sounds of burning wood and fire floated through the air. The Encore team then projection mapped fire onto the table while mains were served. Along with the sizzling of food on the grill, the room was filled with low fog slowly rising from the floor as the guests took off their blindfolds.

The final course was an ode to Willy Wonka with the room lighting up with the colours of liquorice Allsorts, a chocolate river flowing down the tables and the infamous theme song of the Oompah Loompas playing.

For this night to be a success, the timing of the projection and audio had to be perfect.

Grand Hyatt Melbourne General Manger, Ilan Weill was thrilled with the work Encore produced.

“We of course appreciated your innovation and hard work to meet the deadlines and listen to us. However, the special thank you I would like to convey is for your partnership and amazing spirit working and having fun with us on what was a last-minute idea and turned out to be a fully produced wow type of night. Your patience, great attitude, talent and how you joined forces with us on the night was felt by everyone involved and we really appreciated working together as one team,” said Mr Weill.

“We are delighted to call you our partners – Thank you again!”

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QUEENSLAND
Volkswagen Customer Xperience Summit 2019
Venue: Royal International Convention Centre, Brisbane

Delivering a big stage solution for Volkswagen

Encore was set the challenge to create a memorable high-end audio-visual feast communicating the ‘Iconic’ theme for the Volkswagen Customer Xperience Summit 2019. The event welcomed over 800 delegates in two streams from across the Volkswagen dealer network at the Royal International Convention Centre, Brisbane on 19-21 February 2019.

Conceived and convened by Volkswagen Australia Director of Customer Experience and Marketing Jason Bradshaw, more than 800 Volkswagen Group Australia staff and delegates from the nationwide dealership network have attended what is believed to be the biggest customer training exercise held by an auto importer in this country.     

The commanding stage set delivered a massive impact. Encore’s technical team created a mammoth screen consisting of 5 custom borderless screens combined to form one large canvas of 48m wide, this included two curved screens at either end to frame the 28m custom black acrylic stage. Over 150 pixel mapped LED neon tubes encased the top and bottom of the screens creating a futuristic feel and complementing video content. Two circular stages made of black reflective acrylic built either side of the screens created a platform for two of the latest Volkswagen vehicles launched at the event.

This impressive event delivered a series of captivating on-screen animated experiences on the huge projection surface which flowed thru to the pixel mapped lighting effects adding an extra level of excitement and drama. The central screen was also recessed to enable the speakers to make a dramatic entrance from behind the stage set.

By day the impressive stage was beautifully lit with red and blue with spotlights shining on the cars and reflective stage. During the conference the dramatic staging hosted Omar Johnson VP of Marketing for Apple, followed by presentations by a number of guest speakers and dealers.

During the gala event in the evening the premium dealer awards were presented. The lighting show was ramped up to the maximum, plus pyrotechnics, the release of thousands of streamers and CO2 canon blasts to celebrate the major awards.

Michael Magafa, National Sales Director for Encore was delighted with the impact created by the giant stage set and the overall seamless delivery of the event.

“The brief was to create a big impression, so we delivered a huge solution! The stage encased the entire room and the team designed an impressive lighting and projection solution to captivate the guests. I am very proud of the team’s flawless delivery for our client.”

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AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Top Secret 2019 Dinner
Venue: National Convention Centre Canberra

Encore Event Technologies (Encore) served up an incredible holographic-like experience for some of Australia’s leading event industry professionals, at the “Love and Desire” themed Top Secret 2019 Dinner on Friday 22 March.

Hosted by the National Convention Centre Canberra (NCCC), as part of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), this dinner was part of a 3-day program run by the Canberra Convention Bureau (CCB).

The program consists of a series of individualised experiences for an exclusive group of national meeting planners. Showcasing business event product and services, the program allows Canberra’s events community to demonstrate the calibre of events in our nation’s capital.

The hero of the night was Encore’s expert use of a holographic mesh screen, highlighting the venue as a premium event space and showcasing the technology available when holding an event at the NCCC in conjunction with Encore.

Using the holographic mesh screen, Encore created animated content such as a hot air balloon that appear as though it was floating through the air.

Known for their innovation, Encore really broke the mould for the Top Secret 2019 Dinner bringing Stephen Wood, General Manager of the National Convention Centre Canberra into the room through a hologram. Guests were able to watch Mr Wood standing onstage, interviewing himself as if there were actually two of him.

The use of holographic mesh screens is usually only seen at big budget events such as Eurovision and the Grammys, or on television. However, Encore were able to demonstrate to event managers how this technology is possible at their events with the right team and the right venue.

Mr Wood commented, “We love working with Encore, they always manage to outdo themselves with their innovation and creativity, and this event was no exception.”

The theme for the 3 day familiarisation was “Love and Desire”, based on the current exhibition on display at the National Gallery of Australia.

On each table were large 2D Scenic Panels on custom frames, designed to look like garden lattices in the shape of hearts as a nod to pre-Raphaelite theme of the “Love and Desire” exhibition.

Directly above the tables were 20 LED Kinetic Lights, programmed to move with the music and change colour throughout the night, creating a truly spectacular lighting display.

Also taking inspiration from the “Love and Desire” theme was the night’s entertainment. During the event, two actors from the Shakespeare by the Lake performance rose up after being hidden as guests and began to perform some of the Bard’s most famous sonnets.

Continuing the surprises, instead of using one main screen, Encore set up four 60in televisions across one truss structure on the main stage. They displayed the animated logos of Encore, NCCC, CCB and IHG in front of scrolling panoramic shots of Canberra spread across the 4 screens as a single wide screen image, showcasing the beauty of the city.

“This was a truly sophisticated and memorable event. The National Convention Centre Canberra and guests were delighted with the outcome, and we can’t thank Encore enough,” said Mr Wood.

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VICTORIA
Lunar New Year
Venue: Crown Melbourne

New technology for New Year Celebrations at Crown Melbourne

VIP guests from China celebrated the Lunar New Year in style at Crown Melbourne on Friday 22 February. Encore created an atmosphere of opulence and splendour with their stunning table projection, multimedia, audio visual services and styling.

The highlight of the evening was the spectacular custom table projections that greeted guests as they entered the River Room and found their seats. The content projected onto each individual table was the perfect blend of Chinese tradition, opulence and technical innovation.

On each table, cranes flew around the circular table, fish swam between glasses and flowers grew from plates as the different animated looks circled each table and even individual plates. On top of the Lazy Susan, the menu for the night was projected in both English and Chinese, rotating, so all guests could read it.

Then as food arrived, Encore masked the projection on the Lazy Susan and plates, so the colour didn’t affect the look of the food while the areas surrounding each continued with projected with animation.

As well as the projection mapping, Encore created a beautiful light show adding excitement to the entertainment while enabling the projection show to shine.

Encore’s beautiful styling enhanced the theme. Red was chosen as the main colour as it symbolises luck, happiness and joy in Chinese culture. The team used varying shades of red in the lighting, stage set and table projections, while also laying red carpet to cover the entire floor and hanging red swagged drapes to create a seamless look.

Two large screens framed either side of the stage with a sign displaying a custom designed Year of the Pig insignia in the middle of the stage.

Also outlining the stage was an intricate stage set that was Laser cut to look like lattice in a traditional Chinese garden interwoven with cherry blossom branches.

During the night, guests were entertained by a high energy violinist, lion dancer, and magician. Each entertainment act had their own animated table projection to complement their performance – a sparkling display of glitter for the violinist, a small animated dragon for the lion dancer and the magician’s logo for his performance.

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AUCKLAND
New Years Eve
Venue: SKYCITY Convention Centre Auckland

Encore Event Technologies (Encore) treated guests at the SKYCITY NYE Party 2018 to a showstopping, Las Vegas-themed audio visual spectacular at SKYCITY Convention Centre, Auckland.

The talented team at Encore were entrusted with the event, designed to enthral the most valuable of VIP’s on the biggest party night of the year – and they didn’t disappoint! Capturing the unique and glamorous atmosphere of a Las Vegas show, guests were transported to one of the world’s most famous districts with a palpable sense of anticipation and excitement.

Encore created the stunning aesthetic with bold and colourful lighting choices, innovative stage styling and carefully crafted audio to support the entertainment that immersed the audience in the Las Vegas theme.

The hero of the night was Encore’s lighting solutions. With over 100 LX Fixtures around the room and moving LX fixtures attached to truss droppers and totems on the stage, Encore turned the back wall into a lighting backdrop.

To keep guests entertained, the stage was framed on either side by two 20ft screens and two 16ft screens, all displaying multimedia content created by Encore. This custom content was projected onto the screens using four 7K laser projectors and a Barco S3.

Guests danced the night away with back-to-back entertainment such as illusionists, dancers, singers and an 8-piece band. During these acts, the lighting became part of the show, working seamlessly into the performances on stage.

SKYCITY were once again thrilled with Encore’s work and the creativity and efficiency they demonstrated in producing an unforgettable night. Encore have been creating mesmerising events at SKYCITY for 15 years, managing to outdo themselves each time.

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QUEENSLAND
Cairns Taipans Season Celebration
Venue: Pullman Cairns International

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans celebrated their 20th anniversary year and the 2018-19 NBL season on Friday 22 February at the Pullman Cairns International. It was a celebratory night for the Taipans, marking 20 year history as well as acknowledging they are the only local sports team competing at a national level, so club officials wanted to give their players, local supporters and sponsors an unforgettable night.

As the in-house event services provider, Encore was tasked with delivering an experiences befitting of the occasion. Inside the Grand Ballroom, Encore created the stage set using interlocked 2D and 3D Scenic Panels. When lit, the intricate patterns of the Scenic Panels cast beautiful shapes and shadows turning the backdrop into a feature piece. In the centre, the team engineered a 3D Scenic Panel formation in a diamond shape which became the frame for the 20th Anniversary logo. Each element of the stage set was spaced one metre back from the next creating visual depth and an innovative 3D effect.

Lighting design was key to the overall event concept using a variety of equipment from moving lights, uplights and washes, profiles and more. The creative lighting choices were set to a theme of orange, navy and purple – the Taipans team colours. Centrepieces were designed using the team’s basketballs placed on top of glass vases – a simple, yet very fitting design for the event and its guests.

Following the main awards ceremony, it was time for the party to begin. With the DJ playing through the flawless sound system and Encore’s lighting operator putting on a show with unique lighting effects, guests had a great time dancing and celebrating.

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Partner with the production specialists for your next event

At Encore, we believe in turning ordinary events into extraordinary experiences. With Australia’s largest range of event production solutions at our fingertips, we have the creativity and technology to bring your event vision to life. From conferences, galas and exhibitions to sale incentives, product launches and touring roadshows; we have the network, experience and equipment to deliver your event seamlessly. Get in touch with us today to start discussing the requirements for your 2019 events.

• Recommended:
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  • Table projections deliver award-winning experience
  • New table projection holographic technology
  • How table projection mapping can be used for event branding and story telling
  • Projection mapping for event solutions

Everyone in events is familiar with large-scale projection mapping; on buildings, on stage, and at activations. But there’s almost limitless potential to tell your story on a much more personal scale. Sharing a meal is one of the most intimate human social rituals, and projection mapping onto the dinner table is emerging as a fantastic way to communicate, delight, and impress your audience.

At Encore Event Technologies, we’ve been teaming up our amazing digital artists with our high-definition projectors and tech crew to create breathtaking, Insta-worthy, wildly shareable content that transforms any meal into a multimedia event.

Projection Mapping for Personalisation

For Dom Pérignon, we took the long and storied history of the company and used its immediately identifiable visuals to completely brand a dinner for 100 VIPs at Sydney’s Ivy Ballroom. The dining table became a canvas for telling the Dom Pérignon brand story with customised animated content projected onto it. Personalised name cards in the shape of the Dom Pérignon logo were projected onto place settings, followed by custom graphics perfectly aligned with crockery, cutlery, and glassware. Each course had its own projected content, complementing the menu and highlighting the decadence of Dom Pérignon Champagne. Projection mapping was a visually striking way to intertwine the brand’s rich history with the intimate dining experience and left guests wanting more!

Projection Mapping for Branding

At the National Convention Centre Canberra, we used the colours and images associated with the annual Enlighten Festival of outdoor art, illumination, and culture to personalise a lunch for 40 special guests, selling Canberra as a destination for world-class business events. Local food and wine were complemented by animations, with each dinner plate individually lit for impact. Guests’ names were projected onto their seats, offering a unique personal touch and making networking easy. The autumnal colours of Canberra and signature looks of client InterContinental Hotels Group were all incorporated to the projection mapped content to take event branding to the next level.

Projection Mapping for Story Telling

To help global hotel giant The Accor Group tell their story, we staged a one-off special event at the Pullman Reef Hotel Casino, Cairns, for 10 influential clients. We partnered with Belgian creative geniuses Skull Mapping to license their viral sensation ‘Le Petit Chef’ , and built a reef theme in a function room using lighting and set elements, highlighting the natural beauty of the region. Guests were then utterly stunned when their ‘tablecloth’ turned into one of Le Petit Chef’s animated adventures. The VIPs were so impressed, they asked to see the animation a further four times!

Table projection is still such a fresh technique that most guests (and event producers!) are still to experience it live. It’s an utterly entrancing spectacle that has everyone whipping out their devices and saturating social media with images and video. It has an amazing power to communicate your brand, personalise an event to a micro level, and tell any story; the creators of Le Petit Chef are even using it for two-hour dinner shows that trace the culinary discoveries of Marco Polo!

For a recent Experience Encore event, Encore’s Sydney team chose to create a unique dining experience using projection mapping to match table content to the meal – it’s taking meal pairing to a whole new level! The menu was designed by popular culinary personality, Justine Schofield, and each course had its own unique table design to compliment its theme.

Each course had a uniquely themed kinetic light show to match the vibrant and fun personality of the food; the ceviche entrée and matching wine saw tables transformed into a beautiful underwater wonderland. As the second course of sticky beef cheek was announced, the room transformed to reflect a rural kaleidoscope of foliage.

The ‘encore’, was a delicious panna cotta which ignited the final animation, a stunning soft pink and white design, wrapped up the culinary experience.

The audience were transported on a culinary and sensory journey like no other,  incorporating theatrical elements and custom table projection mapping to the food and entertainment.

Speak to the experts for projection mapping at your next event

For maximum impact, content creators, event planners, and the tech team have to work very closely – table projections have tolerances in the millimetres, and the biggest implementations have pixel counts in the millions! Encore Event Technologies have learnt through practical experience how to make large scale table projection mapping work, and would love to partner with more event planners to create unforgettable experiences. If you are interested in using Table Projection Mapping in your next corporate event, get in touch with the experts today by sending an online enquiry.

One of the most beautiful, intricate and technically complex stage designs of 2015. Encore delivered a visually captivating event for the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) Awards for Excellence at The Star Sydney. Celebrating the best of the hotel service industry, the event offered guests a visual feast, combining complex stage sets, intricate styling, technically advanced projection mapping and strategically prepared video content.

Inspired by the geometric logo elements the Encore’s event production team built a custom stage design comprised of a 20x5m hard projection set  interspersed with coloured acrylic panels to emphasise the geometric elements of the clients’ logo. Video and imagery was projected onto the 3D set using state-of-the-art projection mapping, illuminating the stage in a thousand colours that drew the audience’s attention and ensured a memorable result.

Projection Mapping uses everyday video projectors, but instead of projecting on a flat screen (e.g. to display a PowerPoint), light is mapped onto any surface, turning common objects of any 3D shape into interactive displays. More formally, projection mapping is “the display of an image on a non-flat or non-white surface”.

Selina Rumble, General Manager of Partnerships & Events at the Australian Hotels Association was delighted with the creative event design that perfectly answered the Association’s brief to deliver a memorable occasion.

“The Australian Hotels Association has worked with the team across Australia for nearly 10 years, and the team know how to push boundaries to produce a stellar result every time. They went above and beyond for our Awards for Excellence, delivering not only a visually stunning experience but a seamless event as well for our 500 guests.

“Whilst a celebration is memorable in itself, we delight in using technology to create a striking event environment that our guests want to share with their friends. Staging Connections have the technology, the team and most of all, the know-how, to deliver special events that continue to impress our guests,” said Ms Rumble.

Stu Buchanan, Event Director at Staging Connections led the team
in managing and producing the entire event.

“It was a star-studded event and we were keen on impressing both our client and the event’s attendees. Our team worked hard to design the multimedia for the event that took over 125 hours to prepare, and the result
was a dynamic and impactful backdrop that guests raved about.

“As an integrated event staging provider, every element of the event was carefully thought out, from the set design of tessellated triangles, to the mapped digital backdrop, to the three 16:9 screens and the table styling featuring illuminated glass terrariums filled with copper string lights. The event environment was warm, inviting and had an ultimate wow-factor,” concluded Mr Buchanan.

Staging Connections worked in collaboration with The Star Event
Centre’s technical and audio visual team to deliver the spectacular result for the Australian Hotels Association Awards for Excellence.

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• How projection mapping can add an extra dimension to your events

We humans have been fascinated with creating art that fools our eyes and transports us physically since the beginning of civilisation. From perspective tricks in murals to the fake windows on blank building walls of the trompe l’oeil tradition, we delight in deceiving our senses. Now, in the 21^st century, 2D and 3D projection mapping are the latest tools of this grand tradition, and are available to you to transform your events in ways that are only limited by your imagination.

Mapping it out

So what does the term ‘projection mapping’ mean, and how does it differ from plain old ‘projection’?

Well, we all know what a projection is an image, made of light, beamed onto a screen or surface. It could be a movie, a PowerPoint presentation, or any series of images that gets a point across. Its defining characteristic is that we are clearly aware of its edges, limitations and artificiality. It inhabits a defined space, and our brain sections it off; that’s the projection, and next to it, that’s the wall.

Projection mapping has come to mean the use of two or more projectors to extend a continuous image across multiple surfaces, the classic example being four walls. If you are standing in a square white room and a projector shines a photo of the Swiss Alps onto one entire wall, your brain tells you that you’re looking at a projection of a photo. If multiple projectors work together to cover all four walls with a seamless 360 degree panoramic image of the Swiss Alps, your brain starts to think it’s gone skiing. We’re still not totally convinced, but we are enchanted.

2D or not 2D?

Whether we’re talking about 2D or 3D projection mapping is dependent on what we’re actually projecting onto. 2D projection mapping assumes that all the surfaces to be covered are flat screens, walls, or floors. The complexity of 2D projection mapping is in lining up the edges of the beams from multiple projectors and coordinating the projected content so that the eye perceives it all as one big, unbroken image. This is known as Edge Blending.

This takes some serious calculations and very precise physical controls. There are a variety of technologies on the market that help achieve these results. Some brands of projectors have software built-in that, when a physical link is set-up between units with the same capability, detects and manages the activity of all the projectors in the group, enabling them to work as one.

Another solution is to use specialised computer software and hardware to control your projectors, which enables the use of whichever projection system is available.

3D projection mapping – no glasses required

Event Profile: 3D Projection Mapping from Encore Event Technologies.

3D projection mapping has firmly entered the public consciousness through major public events such as Sydney’s Vivid Festival. The annual event sees the Sydney Opera House, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Customs House and other Sydney landmarks transformed by artists using powerful projectors and complex software. A ballerina dances across the Opera House, Customs House transforms into a 17th century French Palace, and abstract art animates the face of the Gallery.

3D projection mapping is another step up in complexity from 2D. While still drawing on multiple projectors and Edge Blending, it adds the seriously mind-bending task of mapping images onto actual three dimensional objects. In the case of Vivid, it’s a building exterior or architectural feature. Most interestingly, it can also be an object created for the sole purpose of being projected on. It’s this last option that is generating some impressive creative thinking in the events industry.

The textbook example of how to use 3D projection mapping for great effect and value for money in a corporate event has come from the auto industry. At recent international car shows and product launches, manufacturers have made blank white foam shells in the shape of their models. Much cheaper and lighter than an actual car, they are easier to ship to the venue. Amazing content is then projected onto the shell that brings it to life as a car. But this car can change colours, finish and details. The projected content can also be video and animation that make the car look like it is driving at speed. Headlights light up, wheels spin and the windscreen reflects the environment flashing past.

Light: portable, flexible and…..light

There’s some pretty obvious advantages to using projection mapping to theme or brand your event.

The first is ease of creation, transport and setup. Physical sets and props have to be designed, built, transported and made to work physically in the venue. If your theme was Ancient Greece, for example, you’d need to build and install quite a few fake stone columns to give your guests the impression they’re having dinner in The Parthenon. If you project an image, or better yet, video of the actual Parthenon across all four walls, you’ve done a much better job with a lot less hassle.

If you’re running a roadshow that is staged in many different venues, the efficiencies become even greater. Not only have you saved on freight and labour costs, but the logistical challenges presented by different spaces are completely overcome. Venue specific problems such as low ceilings, small doors and bad lift access that can make bringing in sets a nightmare are all sidestepped by using projection mapping.

Your brand, your way

Despite all of the 3D projection wizardry, the real star of your show is your brand. Projection mapping offers a huge range of opportunities to have your message refreshed and emphasised throughout the event. Because all projected content is dynamic and can be changed subtly or dramatically at will, your branding is no longer relegated to static banners or a single instance on a screen. Your brand can be a brash animated statement on audience entrance, fade to a subtle underpinning during a keynote speech and become part of the room’s architecture in the post-show networking session.

The ease of changing projected content also has a positive effect on event timing and management. If a space needs to be reset from lecture to cocktail mode, projected theming and branding doesn’t get in the way like a physical set, one button press and the reset is done.

There’s also the ‘Wow’ factor; your audience leaves the lecture hall which has been subtly branded and lit throughout the conference. They return for dinner and enter a totally immersive fantasy world of your choosing.

Content is Key

The success of any projection mapping project relies on creating the right kind of content. It’s not just the size and quality of the digital images provided as source material, but the way they are used in service of the event’s goal. It takes practical experience in the use of projection mapping at events to know what kinds of content will work and what won’t when scaled across multiple projectors and blown up to the size of a building. Hint: your iPhone photos probably won’t look that good.

The look and feel of an event needs to be sculpted with both artistic vision and technical know-how. Encore Event Technologies now employs specialist staff to help customers build projected content for events in order to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Amazing results can be achieved when technical specialists work hand-in-hand with event organisers to deliver a brief. If your imagination is stimulated by the possibilities of beaming your own world around your audience, start by talking to an expert to determine exactly what they’ll need from you to make it happen.

Imagination is your only limitation

A blank canvas is a blessing and a curse. Projection mapping enables you to create almost any conceivable visual effect, whether it’s as simple as your logo in three dimensions rotating on a wall, or as complex as your audience being taken on a spaceship through the Milky Way. A coherent artistic vision, well executed, will always have the greatest impact. Consider what the overarching message your audience needs to take away from your event, and focus in on that. All visual material should subtly reinforce that point.

As projection mapping is heavily reliant on computer technology, it’s a rapidly changing field. As more becomes technically possible, creative’s are constantly pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved. If you’re looking for inspiration, talk to your Encore Event Technologies contact to see some of our recent work.

Watch, learn, and bring a bit of magic to your next event.           

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