Tim Brooksbank, chairman, Calibre UK reports, "In the centre of the set for this year's Academy Awards, there was a cylindrical projection screen showing clips of nominated movies. When logos and general graphics were shown, this cylindrical projection screen rotated open to reveal an LED display, the rear surface.
"The challenge is that if you project onto a curved surface, you get a distorted picture. The initial idea was to use the in-built warping capability of the projection system but this proved insufficient - the amount of 180-degree warp was right at the limit of the projector lens capability and exceeded its inbuilt warp range, which is why we were approached to provide external image processing. Using the Warp Generator functionality of our PVProHD-IW processor, the image was geometrically corrected and the on-stage result looked fantastic."
In fact, a pair of identical projector-and-processor systems was supplied by SenovvA to the ceremony so that in the event of a failure, the film-clip imaging would not be lost. In the event, the system worked perfectly and no back-up was needed. Calibre UK's master representative for North America, Paul Carey helped specify the equipment, providing training and technical support to SenovvA personnel.
Tim Brooksbank concludes: "The PVproHD-IW has a comprehensive set of configuration tools, and its ability to warp streaming video in real time on live sets such as this one is of vital importance to TV and event production crews. We were delighted to be able to assist SenovvA with the realization of this project."
(Jim Evans)
