Invitation to the light show “Circle of Light” 2019 in Moscow and a little insider from one of the sites

From September 20 to 24 (that is, the beginning is already today!) The 9th Moscow international festival “Circle of Light” will be held. This year, cheers, Epson projectors again “got” the lion's share of mapping work on one of the sites - the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve , which will turn into a “Fairy Tale Park” for the duration of the festival. Entrance to all sites is free.

This year, I will again tell you a little more about the event, about the specific venue on which our projectors are used, and also show some “insider” photos from the night preparations for the event, which took place this week. Just like last year .

About the Circle of Light Festival 2019

This year the festival will again be held at several venues in the capital:

The opening of the festival will take place on September 20 at the Rowing Canal. From 20:30 to 21:30 they will show the multimedia musical “Seven Notes”, as well as an amazing 15-minute musical pyrotechnic show.

At the site in Kolomenskoye, several places were prepared at once, where the projection is performed. I will list the main projections from those where Epson projectors are installed:

• to the Church of the Ascension of the Lord;
• to the ensemble of the estate Kolomenskoye;
• direct projection on the grid "Starry sky"
• back projection "Gin and the magic lamp."

This year, I again had the opportunity to visit behind the scenes at the site in the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve, and I, with the permission of LBL and SDI, hasten to share interesting facts with you.

Three “towers” ​​with paired projectors are used to project onto the Church of the Ascension of the Lord - the main attraction on the site in Kolomenskoye:

And projectors are not easy. For the first time, the latest Epson EB-L20000U projectors were honored to entertain the audience at a real event.

Epson EB-L20000U

Epson EB-L20000U is a lightweight (among installation models) and compact model in a segment of projectors that is popular with rental companies with a brightness of 20,000 lumens and WUXGA resolution. Of course, the laser projector.

The device is equipped with a built-in camera that allows you to remotely carry out diagnostics, and can also be used to work with the Epson Professional Projection Tool to configure multi-project installations and work with functions such as stitching and projection mapping. It is this software that is used both in Kolomenskoye and helped in setting up mapping in Tsaritsyno last year.

The main features of the projector that make it especially interesting for such installations are a sealed optical unit and lens protection , thanks to which the projector is not afraid to work in conditions where a powerful laser beam can hit it at any show.

By the way, the Epson EB-L1755U , which was used in Tsaritsyno, of course, is also very “tenacious”, but it is the new twenty-thousandth meter - consider it an ideal rolling model : it is very bright, compact, durable and well protected from environmental influences.

Tightness protects the most important parts of the projector from smoke and dust. The device is so new that on our site there is not even a page about it. As will be, I will definitely give a link.

But back to the event.

How was the event prepared?

All "photos" are taken directly from the camcorder, do not blame me for the quality.

This time, in addition to actually mapping using projectors, many areas on the site will be additionally illuminated by powerful projectors with remote control. The control panel looks very impressive:

The upper part of the church will be illuminated by spotlights synchronized with the video sequence fed to the projectors. To my question, what does “metadata look like for synchronization”, the operator answered that the information is transmitted to the control unit in the form of an audio track. In how.

The beginning and end of each shift is checking the accuracy of the projection information to ensure that there is no “double” on the final projection:

This is how the editor window looks and the result is already on the building itself:

The "starry sky" is projected by four short-focus Epson projectors. Projectors are installed in small "tents" that protect them from moisture and wind. Mapping projectors on Starry Sky operate in particularly harsh environments. Moreover, not a single device failure during the preparation period was recorded.

I also had the opportunity to observe the process of “fitting” the projection onto the ensemble of the Kolomenskoye estate with statues:

It is convenient to use the color mask for the initial adjustment of the projection location, in general, and for fine-tuning, the operator switches to the texture location adjustment mode:

In general, the process of fitting texture to a volumetric object reminded me of UV mapping of 3D models for texturing .

We are waiting for you at the site!

Come to the Circle of Light festival, to the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve , to see everything with your own eyes and appreciate the work of dozens of people and hundreds of man-hours of preparation for such a large-scale event.