To celebrate the temple's 20th anniversary, the socio-spiritual Hindu organisation, BAPS, decided to mark the occasion with a major event. PRG XL Video project manager, Nilkanth Patel, a regular attendee and volunteer at the temple, led the team producing the video for the event, which included former and current freelancers for PRG XL, Viral, Yagnesh and Hamanshu.
The celebration event spanned a full weekend in August, and included presentations and celebrations inside the temple, as well as a night-time projection mapping on to the exterior steps of the marble and limestone building.
Inside the temple, the brief called for a widescreen projection in the main hall, along with a five-channel camera system to capture IMAG footage of the speakers and celebrants.
This 90ft-wide projection on to an intricately carved polystyrene wall was created using six of PRG XL's Panasonic 20k projectors. The wall and carvings were mapped using d3 4x4 Pro media servers, and these also supplied the playback content. Live IMAG camera footage was mixed in to the content using the temple's own PPU, as well as being displayed on two additional IMAG screens
A secondary hall, for additional worshippers, used an LED screen to display the footage from the main hall. PRG XL Video used their vibrant high resolution MC-7T Blackface LED to ensure the viewers in the second hall got the full impact of the colourful celebrations.
A joyful display of dancing formed the grand finale of the festival, and for the culmination of this the video team created a projection of the inspirer of the temple, His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, on to a thick screen of fog which appeared and disappeared within a few seconds. Using clever placement of four Panasonic 20k projectors, and exacting calculations for the fog, the 6m-wide projection was visible to four separate areas of the audience in the hall.
In order to create a record of the celebrations, PRG XL Video also supplied five KiPro digital recorders which captured all of the footage for later editing into a highlights video.
Each evening, outside the temple, the grand steps leading to the main entrance were decorated with colourful animations. Using a combination of Barco HDF-W26 and Panasonic PT-DZ21KE projectors, the rise of the steps became a canvas for a special 20th anniversary animation that included candles, fountains, and a fluttering banner depicting the Guru, Pramukh Swami Maharaj.
Nilkanth Patel commented, "The temple's project team had a busy few months working with new equipment and updating our skills. But with the help of PRG XL, we were able to deliver a superb production with some truly magical moments - all thanks to the creative video projection and a mesmerising fog screen that simply wouldn't have been possible without PRG XL Video's equipment. Everyone in the audience was overwhelmed by the effects and display, and some are still talking about it today! We look forward to working with the Temple on many more successful events."
(Jim Evans)
