On the recent Italian TV special, “Music!, a wide array of international celebrities shared the stories of the songs of their lives and gave their own live renditions of the tunes. STS Communication, d3’s new rental partner in Italy, provided technical resources for the show, including using d3 to projection map the large dome that topped the set.
“Music!” aired on Italy’s Mediaset Canale 5 in primetime for three evenings, with 4.6 million viewers per episode. Viewers tuned in to see stars such as, John Travolta, French actor Gerard Depardieu, singers Anastacia, Tony Hadley and Simon Le Bon discuss the music that’s important to them.
The show was shot in Studio 5, at Rome’s Cinecitta, famous for being Fellini’s film studio and the largest studio in Europe with 3,000 meters of usable floor space. The set featured a 120-square meter Uniview 6mm LED floor; 240 square meters of Martin LC2140 24mm LED panels; 80 square meters of Light Beam 3.9mm LED and 60 square meters of Barco MiTRIX 24mm LED panels. Sixteen Panasonic PT-DZ21K projectors video mapped the 32×15-meter dome capping the set. All materials’ provisioning and video installation were done by STS Communication’s staff.
“d3 was chosen to manage the video projections with the fewest possible machines in a short amount of time,” says Luca “Dado” Manzoni, d3 programmer and operator for STS Communication. “All mapping was realized in three days on site; the modeling and positioning of the projectors were determined in our offices before leaving for Rome. This gave us the advantage of arriving on site almost ready. The show was our first time using d3, and we were really excited about working with it.”
Two d3 4x4pros were deployed, one as the mixed master and one as the understudy. STS Communication provided the mixed master system; OnAir International Crew furnished the understudy.
“Pre-production with d3 was crucial for calculating the projector distances from the dome and the choice of lenses,” says Manzoni. “The QuickCal feature was useful as it allowed us to trim the mapping work to a few hours. Then we refined everything with warp.”
Manzoni adds that d3’s MultiEdit function was key to an efficient workflow. “It enabled the team to work simultaneously. With such a short time to realize the show having this multi-user functionality made the choice of d3 over the competition very easy.”
He notes that d3’s cue list was also “very important for show control. The system handled 16 outputs for more than 10K of content canvas with constant cross fade between the various cues managed directly by the cue list. During the week we worked on d3 it gave us an excellent response in terms of reliability and performance.”
Manzoni adds that the support from d3 was outstanding: “especially Vincent Steenhoek, who followed us from the beginning of design through to commission. His support was constant and essential.”
“Music!” was created by Paolo Bonolis and Gianmarco Mazzi; Roberto Cenci directed. Sascha Amorotti was the production manager for Arcobaleno Tre, Stefano Gadaleta was technical video director for STS Communication and Fabio Verduci was the d3 specialist. Clonwerk created the video content. Luca “Dado” Manzoni, d3 programmer and operator for STS Communication.
About d3
d3 is the world’s first fully integrated visual production system for video professionals, combining a real-time 3D stage visualizer, timeline, video playback engine and projection mapping tools into one product. d3’s unique integrated workflow assists the designer at all stages of the project, from pitch through development to final delivery. For more information visit www.d3technologies.com
