AVT London uses Christie as its preferred projection supplier, and recently invested in its second RoadRunner LX100 four-lamp system, deciding that the optimised 10,000 ANSI lumens output was what was required to cut through the considerable daylight emissions in the 32m high glass palace dome of the East Wintergarden.
This is a difficult location at the best of times, says AVT's Dan Hall, and when Canary Wharf Management's Arts & Events team wanted to present a four-film season based around multi-Oscar winning musicals recently, the company knew it faced a challenge. "The problem with the East Wintergarden is there is no blackout," said Hall. "We had been investigating a number of different solutions, including 84" plasma screens, but the image reflects off the marble floor. Using LX100 projection we are able to use a rear blackout up to 35ft, to prevent the ambient light hitting the back of the screen. This really provided a wow factor, and a high degree of contrast."
The acid test, he believes, is accurately representing the grey grid on a white background. "With other projectors we lose the grey lines entirely, whereas the RoadRunner faithfully maintains the contrast."
Fitted with a 1:2.6 medium zoom lens, the LX100 was flown off the house front truss, projecting in 4:3 aspect ratio (converted to 16:9 widescreen). "Having the horizontal and vertical lens shift facility is really useful," says Hall. "In fact, with the spread of lens offered by Christie, you can always find one to suit any situation without compromising the output." In this instance the projector was also used to show a mixture of Powerpoint-fed interval clips and pre-show announcements.
Although AVT also has a pair of Christie LX45s in its rental fleet - which Hall says are ideal for conference work - the LX100 is now his standard projector for coping with the demands of the East Wintergarden. This included a recent event in the Gallery Room for the Climate Group, who wanted projection onto an overhead sailcloth. "The cloth was not only quite porous but also curved - and with the projector fixed at a 35°-40° angle, using maximum keystoning, it worked really effectively."
(Lee Baldock)
