Luminar Leisure's CEO, Steve Thomas had been investigating the idea with Eminence Leisure CEO Martin King, sole suppliers of acts to the company, for the past 18 months. Into the equation came the Connecta Group, whose subsidiary Tactectic Ltd had acquired a five-year exclusive license for Wonderworks Media Ltd's radical Eyeliner® Foil System technology for live entertainment venues in the UK, Channel Islands and Eire.
The Eyeliner Foil System provides the virtual 3D imaging which can be choreographed to incorporate, and integrate with, live performance. Using a combination of traditional techniques with modern projection equipment and patented technologies a stunning virtual 3D moving image can be created.
Connecta introduced digital media agency TouchVision to the project, and they became responsible for media delivery of the end-to-end high definition content, drafting in Bedford-based Paradigm Audio Visual to devise the complex screen engineering and calculation of the critical geometry. This would ensure that their rear-projection mirror rig, designed to harness a Panasonic PTDW5000 projector, would optimise the holographic image on large screens up to a 6-metre-wide screen, which is angled back at 45°.
Paradigm were also given the task of stretching the special System - a development of a Victorian projection technique known as 'Peppers Ghost' - to enable this true 'virtual' performance to be relayed with maximum authenticity. The System itself uses a method of reflecting a projected digital image onto a seemingly invisible screen made of 0.125mm thick transparent foil - overcoming the drop-shadow or refraction ghosting experienced with other surfaces, and resulting in a crisper, sharper and totally realistic representation of an object or person.
Until recently the scope for projecting an image via a reflective surface onto a diagonal screen had been limited by the lack of projectors with sufficient luminosity and resolution and the absence of a simple lightweight and cost effective screen material. Using advanced technology, Paradigm and Panasonic have jointly overcome these obstacles.
Connecta operations director, Paul Streeter says that before arriving at Luminar, the concept had already been successfully trialed at international events by a number of major corporations such as BMW, Mercedes, Gillette, Volvo, McDonalds and Lego and the technology was most recently showcased at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards 2006 in which Madonna headlined, performing with the virtual band The Gorillaz. It was this success which triggered its migration into the Luminar Leisure estate where the licensed technology will be made available to media buyers and potential advertisers.
"Nightclubs are constantly looking for something new," reasons Streeter. "If we go into around 50 Luminar venues, we can be talking to upward of 100,000 people per night, and be able to promote brands in an interesting way simultaneously across the estate." This will not be conventional advertising but more of a product endorsement by 'Abe', Luminar's animated virtual 'host' DJ. The character was commissioned by Connecta's Derrick Tuke-Hastings, and the system was launched for a two week trial period at Liquid in Stevenage prior to Christmas, with a view to an eventual roll-out.
Supported by both live and and specially-shot performances from Kym Mazelle, Booty Luv, Big Brovas and Soulshaker (featuring Naomi Marsh), the show was designed to demonstrate how a VJ could seamlessly integrated the Wonderworks technology into a show, via the specially created "enAbelink" Bluetooth/infr
