London based projection specialist The Projection Studio worked as a consultant for live communications agency Wasserman to activate a pan European large format video projection campaign for the Vodafone Firsts initiative (www.firsts.com).
This took place via a series of giant projections in key cities across Europe through which Vodafone inspires and engages people to do something remarkable for the first time using mobile technology.
Projection Studio’s Ross Ashton and his team were asked on-board by Wasserman’s Production manager Mark Bustard after seeing their work in the same capacity for Jack Morton Worldwide at London’s New Year Eve celebrations and festivities along the South bank of the River Thames. The projections then were onto the Shell Building.
The latest project involved conducting comprehensive site surveys in all eight cities – which included Budapest Sapientia College, Bucharest National Theatre, Berlin Kulturbrauerei, Cairo CityStars Building, Rome Palazzo Farnese and The National Theatre in London.
They located suitable high impact and visibility buildings and designed bespoke projection systems for each individual place as well as sourcing local suppliers and liaising with these on the required technical elements to help realise the event.
The work also included proposing projection positions and creating the mapping grids with which the local suppliers could work with, liaising with Vodafone’s creative teams as well as specifying the projection hardware and the towers on which they were housed plus control.
Ashton also specified the required lux levels for each work, the amount of pixels needed to optimise the artwork and images, the projection areas and the lenses for the machines.
He utilised his vast experience of mapping and projection onto buildings – which include some of the world’s greatest landmarks – to ensure a cost-efficient, spectacular and highly effective solution was delivered to the client
For the London show, the Lyttelton Theatre fly tower which is part of the National theatre complex, was chosen as the high profile site primarily for its prominence as an eye-catching location as well as its suitability for producing bright and clear results. Aston has also worked on the site before.
He comments, “It was great working with Wasserman and being able to use our knowledge proactively for an integrated pan-European project which has turned many heads! It’s also great to have an end client like Vodafone who are prepared to fully embrace technology and look at imaginative and innovative ways of using it”.
Up to 10 shortlisted Vodafone Firsts finalists from each country will be put to a public vote, with one winner in each seeing their dream become a reality.