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Christie projection mapping at Berlin Opera facade
July 12, 2018
MÖNCHENGLADBACH, Germany– On the lookout for an opportunity to direct the attention of opera-goers and passers-by to the exterior façade of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (German Opera), particularly during the gloomy winter season, the directors turned to Christie® partner b.MEDIA GmbH to find a solution. The aim was to project short and memorable lines in various languages onto the impressive exterior façade of the building with sentences like "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" or "Largo al factotum della cittá" serving both as inspiration and motivation to attend exciting evenings at the opera. The Christie® DWU1075-GS proved the ideal projector for this application, as its laser-phosphor unit with powerful 10,000-lumen light output provided bright, razor-sharp images despite the conditions.
Destroyed in the Second World War, the building in Bismarckstraße reopened in 1961 as a "Bürgeroper" or "People's Opera House" and still ranks among the largest in Germany with almost 2,000 seats. Using the building's impressive washed concrete façade, once intended to serve as a symbol of the separation of art from grey everyday life, this campaign brought art back to city center streets.
"Our objective was to use the strong exterior façade of the German Opera in Berlin to attract attention through short and snappy quotes, as well as logo variations," explains Marion Mair, Sales and Marketing Director at Deutsche Oper Berlin. "We successfully achieved this with the help of the large-scale projection. In keeping with Berlin's status as a multicultural centre, the sentences were shown in various languages each evening."
The key features of the opera house's interior, i.e. offering the best possible views and atmosphere, were also to be applied to the exterior projection. The aim here was for the quotes to be clearly visible, even from a distance. A projection solution therefore needed to be found that could be used every evening for months, have new content uploaded easily on a regular basis and also work reliably throughout the entire period.
The Christie DWU1075-GS mastered this task with ease. Thanks to its integrated Christie BoldColor Technology, a special combination of additional blue and red lasers, the WUXGA projector delivered impressively realistic images with high luminance and precise color reproduction in line with the Rec. 709 standard.
Used daily from 5:00 to 11:00 p.m., the brightest model in the Christie GS range projected a clearly visible 15-meter-wide image from a distance of around 55 meters over a period of three months. Projecting such a bright image for so many hours would have required a replacement lamp in most projectors, which would also have needed special protection from the cold and wintry outdoor conditions. None of this was necessary with the GS model used, which allowed both time and therefore costs to be saved.
The content was uploaded via a computer with an LTE router. Both the user and the customer were granted the necessary connectivity via VPN access. As requested, this enabled the German Opera in Berlin to upload new presentations via the cloud-based system without the need for any additional manpower or costs.
"Despite the large image, the heavily structured surface of the façade and the high degree of ambient brightness from the main street, the projector produced an optimum image thanks to its brightness and good contrast," comments Ronny Zielke, Director of the long-standing Christie partner b.MEDIA. "Since we needed to position the projector off-axis in a building across the street, the integrated warping also proved extremely useful."
The corresponding programming and an Internet connection allowed access to the projector, making it possible to switch it on and off each day and monitor its function.
"We are really satisfied overall. The Christie DWU1075-GS proved itself as a very reliable unit over the long period and operated without any incidents. Our customer was also genuinely impressed and is now considering whether to repeat the campaign next winter," comments Zielke in summary.