2 projectors - one source - one image

[cedd]

Hi all

 

Just back from the Leeds Festival. Lots of very impressive projections and LED screens.

 

In particular, Razorlight had 8 LED (I think - long way off) screens flown upstage. These moved up and down as the gig progressed. Infront of them were what I can only describe as vanesian blinds that lowered down, then the filaments tipped to make them more opaque and eventually a solid white wall on which 2 projectors showed camera footage of the band. What interested me was - 2 projectors were used, although only one image appeared, so each projector must have had half the image to project. What kit is used to do this? What are the pitfalls? I assume it takes an awful lot of time to line up and sort out.

 

Also, when such a gig involves several motorised screens rising and falling, what hardware sits behind it? Are we talking simple winches with control gear or is there specific kit for this.

 

Would be VERY interested if anybody who worked on the gig was around and about too.

 

Cheers

[peternewman]

What interested me was - 2 projectors were used, although only one image appeared, so each projector must have had half the image to project. What kit is used to do this? What are the pitfalls? I assume it takes an awful lot of time to line up and sort out.

I didn't see the show, so this is somewhat guesswork, but if it was a fairly regular aspect ratio (rather than something particularly wide that would need the two edge blended to make a wider image) and again guessing, if they were stacked on top of each other, they were probably both showing the same image. This is often known unsurprisingly as double stacking :(, it means you can get a brighter image without necessarily having to step up the model range a lot, and would also give you an element of redundancy, if one projector was to fail. Speaking from experience it does indeed take a long time to line up, especially when you try to do it in daylight.

[bruce]

If it were a "wide" show, or a matrix, it could have been something like Watchout.

[PeterJ]

This sounds like the kind of thing that either Encore or Vista Spyder is well capable of. There are other cheaper products around and what was used will probably depend on who supplied it. Some rental houses have gone the Encore route, others Spyder.

[Pete McCrea]

I'd put a sensible amount of money (50p?) on it being an XL job, so most likely to be Barco's or Christies of a some high brightness (15000 Lumen Plus).

 

As said above I'll either be a double stacked set, generally in 4:3 or 16:9, or possibly one of those ratios and then masked down using the pojector or control hardware. If it was a wide image say 32:9, then it would be a soft edge blend, where the image is split between the two machines and then lined up to overlap slightly. Again both aBarco and Christie Projectors have in built softedge facilities, as well as both manufacturers having hardware that can do the job (Barco - ScreenPro and Encore, Christie now own Vista Systems who make Spyder).

[cedd]

Thanks for all that. It wasn't double stacked as both projectors were flown from an LX bar about 10m apart and inwards so the beams crossed over. Being a noise boy I'd describe it as a coincident pair. Definately a wide image split down the middle between the 2 projectors.