Stage Designs

Quintuple Wide

Camron Ware and Tim Pike with Planet Wisdom Youth Conference and bring us this 5-wide projection-based stage design. (Originally posted February 2013)

Camron accomplished this projection-mapping set design using Coroplast panels, Renewed Vision’s ProVideoPlayer, and lighting. Camron was responsible for the overall set design and lighting for the tour. He also did the grunge fabric weed-block design for the Planet Wisdom conference tour a few years back.

This year with The Digital Age, they wanted to integrate more video on stage without being just a simple flat screen. Tim Pike (media producer) and Camron got together to talk about how to arrange the panels so Tim could create a template to build media from. They wanted it to be a “mosaic” of panels to match the branding of the conference. Austin Stearns, video director of the conference, also helped make media that was specific to the Coroplast panels.

They cut twenty white Coroplast panels to specific dimensions and hung them on black plastic construction fencing from Home Depot. At each venue, five Hitachi ultra-short throw projectors were placed on the ground in front of each panel section, with one projector covering one panel. Each panel section was about 8′ wide and 6′ tall.

Because of the nature of the Hitachi UST projectors, the panels had to be able to be re-positioned to get the mapping just right, so they used simple clips to hang the panels exactly where they need them. Since this was a tour, everything had to be able to be suited to the venue, load in/out quickly, and ride in a truck without getting damaged.

To give them a “5-wide” setup all from one computer, Camron used a video processor box that he stumbled upon from China.

The MVD20X 6-output multi-viewer allowed them to use 5 outputs from a single computer, much like the Matrox Dual/TripleHead2Go gives you 2/3 outputs.

The “magic black box from China” can do 6 outputs, but that resolution is 4096×600; which is a just barely too large for a Mac to handle. (You can do it on a Windows PC machine with a very specific video card.)

While Camron doesn’t sell these boxes and you can’t buy them in the US, you can contact him about more details on the setup if interested.

Throwback: Ninja Turtles? Highlights and Towers

15 responses to “Quintuple Wide”

  1. Steven Hall says:

    Cameron and Tim,

    You guys are rockstars! This projection looks amazing. I love the stuff you normally do Cameron but this is over the top amazing. I saw in the video that you have the individual squares individually controllable (at least that is how it appears). I know how much of a pain that can be in setting up. Great job.

    Out of curiosity how were you able to manage individual control of each surface? Did you use a specific program, make custom content, or something else?

    Again astounding work guys. Keep up your creative and inspirational work for God’s kingdom!

    ,Steven

    • Tim Pike says:

      The content is custom, I made it in After Effects. The trick is to make a map for each panel block that gives you a “bleed” space and cut points that always stays outside of the coroplast pieces.

      Each time we set this up, we project the map first to make sure the panels lay in the right spots (in relation to the projectors) and the cut points never hit the final program.

  2. John Martineau says:

    Great setup… which short thro projectors (model numbers) are you using. Their brightness seems to hold well on the brighter stage pics. anyhow… very creative…great job.

  3. Ryan Spencer says:

    Very sweet look. What lights did you use?

  4. Camron Ware says:

    Thanks everyone! The lights are Elation Design Spot/Wash Pros.

    The projectors are Hitachi UST A301; 3k lumens (brightest they make..so far)

  5. Daniel says:

    What would the video content process look like if I wanted to take 3 short throw projectors and spread it across the three projectors onto coro-plast or a screen? Would the content blend properly across the projectors in order to make one perfect image?

    • Tim Pike says:

      Daniel,

      It can be done with edge blending (ProPresenter offers that as a module), or you can work with the mosaic pattern and leave the projection edges in the gaps.

      That’s a little off topic for this post, but you can contact me if you have some more questions.

  6. Dennis Choy says:

    I love Cameron Ware! You Rock!

  7. Mark Manley says:

    This is just gorgeous. Camron, did you use Pro Video Player or something else to drive this? I’m setting up a 5-pj system at our new building and this could just rock!

  8. Camron Ware says:

    @Mark – Yes; or ProPresenter can do it!

  9. Looks fabulous! The more screens the better. Great job Camron and Tim. Would loveto see more stage design like this.

  10. Blaise says:

    Amazing!!
    What Video Card do you recommend for a pc to be able to do 5k wide?
    Thanks So much!

  11. Camron says:

    @Blaise – It’s not a video card per-se, but the 5-wide box we talked about in the article.

  12. Johnathan Ness says:

    what are you using as extenders to get to the projectors?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.