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Design

A Projection-Mapped Planet Rises in Dubai

The opening ceremony for last year's World Air Games in Dubai showed off real-time spherical projection mapping.
Images courtesy of Protec

If there's any equivalent to the Olympics’ opening ceremony, it might just be the one that opened Fédération Aéronautique Internationale’s World Air Games in Dubai. Held in late 2015, there was a big stage, huge projections, performers flying around Cirque du Soleil-style, and a 20' wide spherical projection surface. Designed by Protec, the projection-mapped sphere was suspended nearly 100' above the stage alongside aerial performers suspended on cable lines like a fleet of Peter Pans.

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To ensure the accuracy of the projections while the sphere made its slow revolutions, positional information was sent from 15 BlackTrax stringers and 5 BlackTrax cameras to servers, which visualized and handled the 3D geometry in real-time. Protec then used six projectors to cast visuals onto the moving inflatable sphere, which included a map of the Earth and various countries’ flags.

“The coastal wind did play its part in blowing the screen slightly during the ceremony, but with the live tracking in place Protec relished the challenge to deliver some impressive live projection mapping with incredibly accurate and spectacular results,” explains Edward Andradé, business development and production at Protec. “The show was a resounding success with some amazing audience reactions.” Check it out in action below:

Visit Protec's website here, and click here to learn more about the World Air Games.

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