Exterior Projections Monday, August 31, 2009 Digital projection technology has evolved into an incredible medium for event designers in recent years, with the ability to transform building exteriors and interiors into moving canvases for creative graphics, branding, and messaging applications. While the uniqueness of each individual project and venue make every one of these jobs custom, there are a few things to keep in mind up front, so you don’t end up in over your head just before show time. The projection experts at Obscura Digital have been working magic in this area for years, transforming buildings into living media billboards for brands such as Google. Obscura’s Tara Zanecki is here to help you avoid any potential pitfalls: Permitting. Many municipalities require special permits for exterior projections, so making sure everything’s legit with the city early on is a must. Checking in with property owners and keeping them in the loop can’t hurt either. Logistics. Working with A/V partners to make sure the effect can be executed properly is critical. The layout of a room or location of an exterior is important to consider when leveraging this kind of technology. “The big question is can you get permission to project from windows, balconies or open spaces surrounding the building,” Zanecki says. Capabilities. The detail, clarity, and capabilities of this type of projection technology can produce stunning results. Designers can map out images in very fine detail to fit the building from skewed angles, and can compensate for angles so that the projections look like a smooth image up on the building. “We can take multiple projectors with multiple degrees of lumens and blend them together to create one seamless image. This creates a higher resolution image,” Zanecki says. By utilizing CAD drawings and photos to help speed the process, designers can map out the architectural specs of a building. If, for example, you don’t want to project into a building’s windows, the technology allows specific areas of the projection to be blacked out. Timeline. Coming up with the media content is the time-consuming part of the process, so 90 days out from delivery date is a solid ballpark figure for how long it takes to get it done. “We’re meticulous about our work; we do a lot of research and development here. We take really great care to make sure that we meet the client’s needs from a strategic standpoint. We really try to understand their message and work toward that,” Zanecki says. Obscura’s been busy this year transforming architecture into digital canvases. At an event for MacAfee Security at the Mint Plaza in San Francisco, designers leveraged seven HD projectors onto the sides of two buildings to run stunning graphics. For an event at an I.M. Pei-designed building for the Buck Institute in Northern California, designers were challenged by the building’s skewed angles, but mapped it out meticulously and brought it to life with images from the institute. For an event celebrating a YouTube/Google-sponsored orchestra competition, Obscura did the visual mapping of the entire interior of Carnegie Hall and projected moving content in time with the music—very cool.
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