Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as well. The organization yet again upped the ante for its annual event last year by projection mapping buildings around Madison Square Garden in New York City, with the help of video solutions provider Westcoast Pixel.
Partnering with BM Creative Laboratory to develop the visuals, Westcoast Pixel projected the 3D imagery onto two sets of windows on PENN 2, a building in Midtown Manhattan, above a live orchestra performing snippets of nominated songs. With 47 LED billboards within ten feet of the projection, the project’s big pure laser projectors, with 15,750-lumen brightness, were key to its success. Equally crucial were the Westcoast Pixel team’s AJA Mini-Converters and openGear solutions, which helped bridge signal gaps. The project represents one of several that Westcoast Pixel supported in the last year.
“Signal conversion was huge on this show, as it is for many other projects we work on,” shared Westcoast Pixel CEO Brent Javier. “In general, our biggest signal conversion needs stem from having to support multiple projectors. When you’re dealing with outdoor projection mapping, where you’re competing with sunlight or significant ambient light, like in New York, you need to stack as many projectors as you can to get those pixels as bright as possible. That’s where an AJA SDI DA (distribution amplifier) comes in handy. It’s an indispensable tool that’s nonnegotiable in any system we build.”
Hitting high notes
Regardless of the project, 3D project mapping is inherently complex. Done well, it transforms a flat wall with 3D animation to create an immersive experience. To achieve the Grammys projection mapping, Javier and his team spread ten projectors across two locations. Six of them were placed on the ground, right in the middle of traffic, and four were stacked two stories high on the roof of a nearby building, which provided bright and clear visuals, despite all the ambient light.
Media content playback and control were handled by a Disguise VX 4 media server connected to each set of projectors. They routed the SDI signal from one of the VX 4s into an AJA FiDO fiber Mini-Converter and then traveled over glass up to the roof. From there, the signal was fed into an AJA 12GDA 12G-SDI distribution amplifier and then to the stacked projectors.
Immersive storytelling
Beyond 3D projection mapping, Westcoast Pixel’s expertise includes engineering video systems that bring live events and immersive experiences to life using LED displays and media server programming. The outfit has experienced a surge in demand for LED projects recently, especially as more companies embrace the medium and think outside the box when creating presentations. From a pure entertainment perspective, it’s rare to attend a large-scale concert that doesn’t feature visuals on large IMAG (image magnification) screens.
One of Westcoast Pixel’s recent IMAG projects included media server programming for Christina Aguilera’s latest concert tour. For most tour stops, they were provided a giant upstage LED wall and two side IMAG LED walls in different configurations to simulate immersive visuals. They used an AJA 3G-AMA 3G-SDI audio embedder/disembedder with an XLR breakout cable to quickly pass time-coded audio into the media server.
“IMAG used to just provide a bird’s eye view for audience members who had nosebleed seats. Now it’s become an art piece, a driving creative force that helps tell the story of the musician’s set,” explained Javier. “Big shout out to Christina’s creative directors, House of Same LA, for trusting us to provide the absolute best visual direction for her ever-changing shows.”
Balancing project demands
Whatever the ultimate project goal and scope, Westcoast Pixel aims to accommodate every client request. Sometimes this requires creative problem-solving and finding solutions within constraints. With an arsenal of AJA gear, Javier and his team can easily configure key components and make changes without compromising the setup. This includes AJA FiDO Mini-Converters, which are crucial for moving video over fiber, AJA DAs for distribution reclocks, and the flexibility of AJA openGear technology.
“When clients see gear from a brand like AJA, they know the caliber of event they’re going to get. All it takes is one show to realize critical fail points, which is why we have an AJA tool ready to cover any base and reduce the potential for failure,” Javier concluded.
