The permanently installed show was the brainchild of Hanger 58's owner Wim Grommers, who approached Painting with Light's Luc Peumans to create storyboards, video artwork and a library of standard content to be made available to various clients renting the space, with custom material available on request.
He wanted something spectacular and eye-catching to set the venue apart and add value to the events hosted there.
The idea is that guests can view the show through the large glass walls of the modern Hanger 58 in the winter and enjoy the large format show standing outside in the summer evenings.
When running, the projection images measure approximately 40m long and 20m tall. They cover a series of different shaped buildings set at 90 degrees to one another in one of the historical villages replicated at Bokrijk.
Luc was delighted to be involved, "It's great to see someone with the foresight and imagination to invest in a show like this and of course I am extremely proud that it's happening in my home town and base of Genk, continuing the creative spirit of the area with a new technical direction."
Painting with Light undertook a complete 3D scan of the building facades before creating the multi-million pixel 'map' and then Luc and his team, including Bart Tauwenberg from New Solid, started work on the content - making it humorous, fun and entertaining.
"Having the two separate surfaces offers great possibilities to split the images and tell the story with contrasting and complimentary images" explained Luc. "And while that presents a challenge to get the harmony between the two elements just right, it's also great to be able have a dual narrative running."
Luc specified a d3 4x2 pro media server which stores and runs the content, mapping it millimetre-perfect to the buildings. Luc commissioned Jo Pauly and Michel Stroobants from Visual Solutions to complete the d3 media server programming and projector alignment.
The projections are fed by two Digital Projection (DP) Titan Quartz 20K machines which were delivered by FACE (Foundation for Audio-Visual Commerce Engineering) who are based in Boom, Belgium, and a d3 reseller for Benelux. Both projectors are located inside Hangar 58, one pointing directly at one set of building surfaces and the other firing across at a 45 degree angle.
The projection installation has immediately been a hit with individuals and organisations organising events in Hanger 58, and is proving a highly flexible solution for their clients to make their shows stand-out.
(Jim Evans)
