"Nice house. Would you like to see it with Ionic instead of Doric columns? No problem. Click." That conversation is not uncommon when architects or real estate developers and clients are working with scale models or 3-D animation. But imagine what it would be like when the scale was 1:1, no matter how big the building. That's one of several new market applications in which a handful of U.S. companies are attempting to develop more interest using large-scale, multi-projector installations driven by dedicated content that is digitally mapped specifically for a projection target. For instance, San Francisco-based Obscura Digital projected several model homes complete with occupants on a pending development in Dubai World, as a way to put prospective buyers into the picture, literally. When Google launched its iGoogle custom home page art campaign last year, Obscura Digital mounted a dozen 30K-lumens Christie Digital projectors six stories atop buildings in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, projecting the video images created by Philippe Starke, Tory Burch and other artists onto urban canvases like the high-rise Gansevoort Hotel. A Houston lighting design company, LD Systems, in conjunction with a cinema digital post-production and effects company, created a large-scale projection system using three projectors that turned the George R. Brown Convention Center into a seemingly malleable monster of roiling lights.
Besides the scale and the use of multiple projectors, what sets this kind of projection work apart from conventional projection is the use of pixel-mapping software that takes a rendering of the intended projection surface and maps it out pixel by pixel. Thus, columns, windows, door, light fixtures and other architectural details can be used as characters in the larger narrative. The entire building can be obscured in darkness while columns toggle between Ionic and Doric in an instant.
The impact of this eye-popping projection on advertising could be immense, particularly as ad dollars start to come out of hiding in 2010 in search of new ways to reach eyeballs. Television commercials can reach a few million people two or three times, but a unique event, such as when Obscura Digital turned the U.S. Mint building in San Francisco into a pulsating canvas with balls bouncing between the windows for security software maker McAfee, can go viral from onlookers' camera phones, generating hundreds of millions of views on YouTube and other online channels.
This kind of digitally-enhanced large-scale projection has been widely used in Europe, mainly in the form of art installations. But Europe's more liberal state arts funding practices aren't mirrored in the U.S., where new technology applications introductions need to be more market-driven. Furthermore, the use of multiple HD projectors and the time-and-labor-intensive bit-mapping work can increase the cost of a project exponentially over conventional projection, dissuading many potential U.S. commercial users so far. Scott Justis, marketing manager for LD Systems, says that the $20,000 budget for the Art Car parade projection was eclipsed by the estimated $180,000 his company and partner and post house Texas Post & Video added in the form of projection and equipment rentals and post production. Another speed bump in the U.S. is the myriad of state and local ordinances and laws that regulate advertising. In some cases, projections have yet to be classified as being outdoor displays like billboards or one-time events.
That hasn't been the case in Europe, though, where the art installations have encouraged an infrastructure to be built and raised awareness about the techniques that are being increasingly applied to commercial projects by companies like Neoproj in France and Nuformer in Holland. Corporations from various sectors have already used pixel-mapped projection on large and small scales. Volkswagen, for instance, used it to display the interior workings of a new car on its exterior.
The good news is that there is a foundation for an infrastructure in place in the U.S., thanks to more accessible pixel-mapping software and media servers like the Green Hippo Hippotizer and Catalyst, among others, and companies such as Obscura Digital and LD Systems, both of which have been heavily promoting the technique. (Ironically, one of Obscura Digital's most recent projects was in Europe: an offshore cube set up in Copenhagen harbor for the U.N. climate conference on which people could post their own videos and messages on the topic.) "We're putting out a proposal a week," says Obscura Digital CEO Patrick Connolly. "The ROI [for advertisers] will definitely be there."
The large-scale pixel-mapped projection could be well-timed for when two industry sectors, construction and advertising, come out of their deep freeze. They'll be looking for something like what can be seen at:
http://www.ldsystems.com/production/specialevents/artcarparade09.html.
