Covid-Conscious Christmas Projection Mapping with PVP

Just like many others in the production industry, I found many clients not being able to hold their typical gatherings to celebrate Christmas. 2020 had many challenges, of course, if you’re older than 5, you probably already knew that.

This year, instead of having one big event, I had two clients want to do Christmas projection outdoors, each night for the Christmas season.

AT&T Performing Arts Center – Dallas, TX

This year, I was contacted by the Arts Center to create some fun outdoor projection that would run each night.  

For this installation, I used 13 projectors inside custom-built weatherproof enclosures to create the sidewalk projection measuring 100 feet long and 20 feet wide. The ultra-short throw projectors were aimed at the sidewalk and double stacked – with one projector inverted – to double up on the projection to eliminate any shadows created from the other lights at the experience. 

Using PVP, I automated all the show files to start and stop each night, and loop through various custom motion graphics we created, as well as stock files.

Grapevine Main Street – Grapevine, TX

https://youtu.be/dnyTLw3r5eE

Grapevine, TX is the official Christmas Capital of Texas® – and well-earned.  They have hundreds of events during the Christmas season, including a nightly light-show on a couple of the historic buildings on main street.  

This year, the City contacted me to create a nightly projection mapping experience on their City Hall building, as well as the local historic theater building. 

I used 5 projectors for City Hall, turned vertical, and using PVP I was able to easily map and automate the custom-built projection.

I used a sixth projector on the theater building and used a few PVP layers to show backgrounds behind a couple of video content files the City provided. 

A great thing about using PVP was the Calendar.  It performed flawlessly for 42 consecutive nights. A fun fact: The PVP machine running the City Hall projection was the one connected to the City’s audio system. The PVP machine running the theater projection (where the vides with audio played) was far away, on top of the roof of another building. Using PVP and the Calendar, I simply had the City Hall machine fire the audio portion of the file, while the theater machine only fired the video portion of the file. Both synced up just fine.   

For both installations, I set up a remote-desktop solution so I could make sure all PVP machines were running properly, as well as remote pan/tilt webcams so I could see the projections live.


Want to see what PVP is capable of? Learn about PVP3 here!

Camron Ware

At Lightware Labs we love creating experiences through projection. Our approach is to be creative visually, and still make productions practical and obtainable.

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