Digital Projection paints a 360° masterpiece
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Vincent meets Rembrandt: The Untold Story, which opened in 2022, will be captivating visitors until 2027 with this audiovisual spectacle. By seamlessly combining visuals with a compelling audio narration of van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo, the exhibition reveals the influence Rembrandt had on van Gogh's artistic journey.
The idea to create an immersive experience of how Rembrandt played an important role in Vincent’s artistic process was envisioned by Hennie Jaspers & Marcel Vos. Taking the lead for this project, Bart van Bokhoven, owner and creative director of Pronorm, Dutch audiovisual integrator, wholeheartedly embraced the initiative. “We started with a concept around six years ago,” states van Bokhoven. “We were going through the diaries of van Gogh and the letters to his brother Theo, where he explained how he really admired Rembrandt’s work, what light and colours the artist was using and his way of painting. This inspired the storytelling.”
To create a fully encompassing experience, Pronorm chose the Noorderkerk Church for the venue, as both van Gogh and Rembrandt practised their faith there, albeit 200 years apart. The goal was to guide visitors through the story using immersive imagery and audio. Digital Projection's projectors were instrumental in this endeavour, expertly displaying van Gogh's and Rembrandt's paintings and sketches while a voiceover brought van Gogh's letters to life.
To visually convey the artists’ connection, the integrator needed reliable, maintenance-free projectors, due to the longevity of the project and there being no on-site technician. Van Bokhoven had prior experience with Digital Projection equipment and was impressed by its durability and minimal failure rate: “I have done some installations previously with Digital Projection kit, and have never known one of them to fail,” van Bokhoven states.
“For a big installation like this, I needed projectors we could rely on.” This, he adds, is the main reason why the integrator deployed Digital Projection’s E-Vision Laser 11000 4K-UHD, E-Vision Laser 10K, E-Vision Laser 8500 and M-Vision Laser 21000 WU 1-DLP laser projectors, all of which are renowned for their reliability and minimal maintenance requirements.
The choice was further reinforced by the projectors' superior image quality and brightness, and Pronorm’s need for even output across all projectors, ensuring a consistent and impactful experience for every visitor. Van Bokhoven adds: “We also had to make sure that all the pixel sizes and light output of all the projectors were nearly the same, so every visitor can experience the untold story of van Gogh and Rembrandt the same way.”
Fred Meijer, regional sales manager for Benelux at Digital Projection, also attributes the effective lines of communication between manufacturer and integrator as one of the many reasons Digital Projection laser projectors were selected for the project: “Bart contacted us directly, without any party in between,” Mejier says. “For customers like Bart, it’s very important for us to have short lines of communication, as when our customers have any questions they need answers fast.”
In addition to the 38 Digital Projection laser projectors projecting captivating content across the ceiling, walls and floor, Pronorm incorporated 12 Fohhn Audio DLI-130 beam steering active column speakers, five Fohhn AS-ss ASX subwoofers and seven VIOSO Anystation Media 4K media servers.
MP Studios, the content creation company, played a pivotal role by crafting the storyline and translating it into imagery. MP Studios produced seven distinct movies, each projected onto a specific area of the church. To achieve this, the company created a comprehensive preview of the content for the entire storyline before dividing it into seven segments, which were then fed to the projectors via the VIOSO media servers.
The majority of the content is projected onto the expansive walls of the church. However, the presence of church poles, columns and intricate details posed a unique challenge. To overcome this obstacle, Pronorm opted to project the main video content onto the walls, ceiling and floor while utilising the columns to create an ambilight effect. Van Bokhoven highlights the significance of this approach, stating: “The ambilight cast on these details greatly helps to enhance the immersive experience.”
