Hit Entertainment Reaches New Heights

MB Productions (MBP), in conjunction with Tangram International Exhibitions, staged a 360-degree virtual set for HIT Entertainment, the leading provider of quality preschool entertainment, at the 26th Annual International Licensing show this month in New York City.

According to MB Productions president Brian Brooks, “the concept was to create a booth that had maximum visibility and high impact.” The end result was a 20 feet tall, 360-degree screen panorama of children’s programs.

To produce a lasting impression, MBP selected eight digital projection Highlite 5100gvs (perched on top of a circular structure built above the booth) and produced eight individual 9 feet x 12 feet images that featured edited DVDs of HIT Entertainment’s most internationally renowned children's properties such as Bob the Builder™, Barney™, Thomas & Friends™, The Wiggles™, and Angelina Ballerina™. Each projector was fed via its own silicon Opix Image Anyplace enabling MBP’s lead projectionists Joe Mayers and Carlos Bohorquez to precisely maneuver all the images to fit the curvature contour of the screens.



To contend with the exhibition show lighting and create bright even images, special consideration was given to the projection materials. MBP’s chief engineer, Ed D’Amico, explains, “In venues with high ambient light levels, high contrast and bright images are difficult to achieve. Hot-spotting and irregular diffusion, on the screen surface, are constant challenges. In our design we paid careful attention to projector angle and screen surface. That is why we selected a grey 1.5 gain rear projection surface.”



After the projection material was stretched and secured onto a pair of circular trusses, the 32 feet diameter structure was elevated twenty feet off the show floor via six half-ton chain motors. MBP, along with Bestek Lighting and Staging completed the installation.