Adkins went on to say in a television interview that “[we] used projection equipment to actually create a very controlled environment – outdoors we would never have had that control.‘Control' under these circumstances is a hard-won commodity. Video director/designer on this event for E/T/C London Paris Patrice Bouqueniaux sums up what he first thought on looking at the scale of the project, “Moving 3D objects and a roof that is not stable? Okay, it will be impossible to achieve that, but let's think about it.”
Achieving that control meant monitoring the unstable ceiling of the venue, as well as the 3D objects. The air pressure-supported roof of BC Place has a heating system to melt snow, although Vancouver has been conspicuously snow-less so far. The entire rigging system for set and lighting for the ceremonies then had to be equal to, or less than, the weight of any snow the venue was designed to accommodate. The roof is also flexible enough to be moved in high winds and changes in air pressure, Bouqueniaux says, “The movement of the roof can be over one meter, so it can go from 40 meters to 41 meters in height.”
Overcoming this movement required a system that could track the movement of the roof, and the progress of the 3D objects, including the mountain, around the arena.
The mountain, made from ripstop for stability, had 1,300 mapping points and was tracked with E/T/C's Only View 3D version software. The ceiling was monitored with Stage One's Qmotion, and the two sets of information were combined.
Projection crew included Yan Kaimakis, Sebastian Cartier Grenier, Nicolas Manichon, Pierre Yves Toulot, Patrick Lefevre, and Patrick Matuszek.
Read also: Projecting The Ceremonies, Part 1