Christie’s 3DLP® projectors were behind the spectacular projection mappings that took place each evening in August on the façade of the Belmond Copacabana Palace luxury hotel, located on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With the technical production of On Projeções, in cooperation with All Bussiness, the beautiful visual reproduced butterflies whose wings bore the flags of different countries, representing the different nations gathering in Rio, to celebrate cultural diversity.
The hotel is widely considered as South America’s premier hotel, and has received the rich and famous for over 90 years. Andrea Natal, the hotel’s General Manager, explained she wanted to engage with guests and the local community, welcoming them to Rio in August 2016 when more than a million people visited the city. “Belmond Copacabana Palace is an important visual landmark, so we wanted to do something special with the façade that would create a wonderful, lasting impression.”
The projection work consisted of a series of animations of butterflies which were projected onto the building’s seven-story façade each evening at 7pm, carrying the message “Rio Welcomes the World”. Each 10-minute display was enjoyed by the general public from the beach promenade in front of the hotel. The animations were created by Kristjana S Williams, an award-winning artist from Iceland, and were brought to life by animator Darren Hanson of the London studio thingsmove.
Christie 3DLP projectors, with 30,000 ANSI lumens and 2K resolution, were used to project the mapping on a surface measuring 70 meters long by 23 meters high. The projectors were installed together on a truss structure 14 meters high, located in the sand of Copacabana’s beach at a throw distance of 96 meters.
The mapping projection had a total resolution of 3334 x 1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 3:4. The contents were launched from two Mediaflow servers with three outputs each. The use of blending and warping was critical in adapting the images precisely to the irregular surface on which the mapping was screened.
The end result was a fantastic series of theatrical light projections that caused a big impact on the people including locals and visitors who viewed the shows. Luciana Barcellos, managing director at On Projeções, said: “The mapping projections were a resounding success and everybody expressed their happiness with them.”
And specific to the Christie projectors, Barcellos added: “As they were located in a high structure, with limited access, the projectors could not fail because they could not be replaced easily. But their performance was outstanding and once again we were bowled over by their versatility, contrast, vivid colors and reliability.”
Clayton Brito, Christie’s Country Manager in Brazil, commented: “We are delighted that this stunning piece created by Kristjana S Williams and Darren Hanson was brought to life using our 3DLP projectors. Our valued partner On Projeções has repeatedly delivered extraordinary projection mappings.”
Built in 1923, the Belmond Copacabana Palace’s fame was assured when Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers referenced it in Flying Down To Rio, their first film together. Many famous people have been guests at the Copacabana Palace, including Madonna, Michael Jackson, Robbie Williams, Walt Disney, Rolling Stones, Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, Brigitte Bardot, Princess Diana, among others.
For video, see:
Copacabana 03: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-B35A-OSteLbU5MSmFBbXVFczg
