The 800 Light Years show is the first UK Son et Lumière to use E//T//C's OnlyView control platform. This is running eight HD Christie S20+ video projectors, montaged together to produce a 64m metre wide by 14m tall image onto the rear face of St George's Hall in central Liverpool.
St George's Hall, designed by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes and originally opened in 1856, is being reopened this week by HRH the Prince of Wales, following an extensive £23 million refurbishment.
In just two weeks, E//T//C UK's Ross Ashton and Paul Chatfield researched, sourced and created all the video material, visuals and custom artwork needed for the 25-minute show, while Karen Monid compiled and recorded a special accompanying music track.
Using OnlyView as the central hub, and as both a creative and a programming tool allowed the team to work fast and to maximise time right up to the last minute - including that spent on site. The software produces images and effects in real time without any delays for rendering, and was instrumental in enabling the show to be produced in time.
2007 marks Liverpool's 800th anniversary. The show's narrative - a collaboration between Jon Corner and Andrew Sherlock of River Media and the LCC Events team - highlights some of the individuals, stories and events that have shaped Liverpool's colourful history.
LCC's event manager Kirstie Blakeman explains, "We wanted to produce an event that was entertaining, informative and that also had a great sense of spectacle. Monumental projection ticks all the boxes, so it was an obvious choice - as were E//T//C UK - they are the experts." She adds that the fact that they could also produce both visuals and the music was "Just brilliant - a real bonus".
Ashton comments that in addition to the short timescale, the other massive challenge was to find a workable physical location for the projectors. At the back of St George's Hall is St George's Gardens, a memorial area full of mature trees. The tree line meant the projectors had to be located only 23m from the building, immediately behind which the ground drops away steeply by 4m.
Two towers were constructed to house projectors, lighting and sound. The Christies are fitted with 1.4 lenses and run as four double-stacked pairs for optimum brightness. They are also crossed over, angled at 25 degrees, to squeeze every last centimetre of additional throw out of the beam paths.
This is producing severe keystoning and image distortion, all of which is corrected in the OnlyView computer, which also does all the edge blending to produce the single image. OnlyView also allows complex animations and window-in-window effects to be applied within the main projections.
E//T//C's site crew is being run by its head of video, Andy Joyes. Karen Monid is assistant programmer, and they are joined by Jack Middlebrook, Briony Margets and Mark Hughes.
E//T//C also worked closely with lighting suppliers Audile, who are architecturally lighting other aspects of the building that are not part of the projections. Audio equipment was supplied by Mersey Sound.
(Jim Evans)
