Determining technical specifications
The projectors needed to be installed as close to the ceiling as possible, yet also had to throw images to cover the walls from floor to ceiling.
To achieve this sensation, Go2 installed four Optoma ultra-short-throw Digital Light Processing (DLP) projectors inside the room. Together, these projectors could create 360-degree visuals—but ensuring they could pull off the stunt successfully was a major technical challenge in itself.
The biggest difficulty was in determining the exact placement of each of the four projectors. In normal use, they would sit perpendicular to the intended projection surface, so they could throw an image up, perfectly square, no more than 0.9 m (3 ft) higher or lower than their installed position. For Mirage, however, the projectors needed to be installed as close to the ceiling as possible (so as not to be blocked by the standing visitors), yet also had to throw images to cover the wall from floor to ceiling.
Such a configuration was certainly not supported in the manufacturer’s specifications. To achieve it, Go2 first determined the perfect angle for ‘tipping’ the projectors was eight degrees. By positioning them with extreme precision, the installers created a highly acute trapezoid-shaped projection on each wall. The combination of these four projections was very tight in terms of total surface coverage, but it did manage to fully cover each wall as planned. Once this level of coverage was achieved, the video images were warped accordingly, so as to appear perfectly on each wall and seamlessly across them.
Once those particular hurdles were leaped, the rest of the project was fairly straightforward in technical terms.
“For a creative activation so big and impressive, I think it would surprise people to know how easy it is to run,” says Scott. “It starts, uploads images and shuts down automatically. It takes only one person to operate. You just push a green button and off it goes!”
Getting noticed
Within the first few days of opening, more than 1,000 people were passing through Mirage each day. By the end of the first week, the crowds were up to 1,200 per day and hundreds of tweets and posts were being uploaded to social media on an ongoing basis.
The social media integration was facilitated by the on-site installation of a webcam and an Apple iPad. The webcam took pictures of the attendees, which they could then sign up—via the iPad—to have e-mailed to them. Some visitors also shot video of their experience inside the room using their smartphones and posted the footage online, using mobile apps like Periscope and Facebook Live.
By the end of the summer, Mirage’s Facebook reach totalled 76,657 people. The hashtag #METMIRAGE was tweeted 3,079 times via Twitter and posted on Instagram, where it received 3,124 comments and 70,736 likes. Further, 109 videos were shared through social media.
This March, at the 2018 Digital Signage Expo (DSE) in Las Vegas, Nev., Mirage’s use of digital projection mapping earned a silver Apex Award in the immersive environments category.
Diane Pereira is marketing and communications manager for Vancouver-based Go2 Productions. For more information, contact her via e-mail at diane@go2productions.com.
