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Creative Technology relies on VYV’s media servers for national historical remembrance celebrations.

VYV’s Photon server and its built-in previsualization technological solution shine at Passchendaele Centenary celebrations.

Once again, Creative Technology used VYV’s Photon servers to deliver an outstanding exterior video production commissioned by the BBC and the British Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.

Cloth Hall, a massive medieval structure built in the 13th century in the Belgian city of Ypres, was the seat for the 100th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Passchendaele, a critical event that affected the outcome of the First World War.

A full redundancy video system built on 58 projectors and 14 Photon servers was used to cover “every inch of that building with lights,” says Will Harkin, senior engineer at Creative Technology. While the sheer size of the main projection surface, measuring 125 meters by 70 meters, would be enough to make heads turn, the lead designer had other plans:

“When normally we’re building projections you tend to sort of have a single facade, we had four. We had the front, we had the side, we had the front and the side of the clock tower. That was in itself a very complex thing to consider when we were designing things.”

-Kate Dawkins, Kate Dawkins Studio

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“Our cutting edge previsualization tools have been a major help on large-scale productions so far and have garnered positive reviews from our clients. However, never fully satisfied with the current state of development of our software suite, we decided to push things further and include Occulus Rift support in our toolkit no later than in 2015. Designers such as Kate Dawkins can previsualize a complete production in a fully immersive context able to simulate any viewpoint available in a theater.”

-Nicolas Pfeiffer, Photon Specialist, VYV

Photon’s built-in previsualization tools provide real-time renders, featuring video texture mapping, stage and screen automation, illumination, and full timeline playback that includes embedded cues execution and audio output.

In order to address these design challenges, VYV was thrilled to see Creative Technology use its cutting edge previsualization technological solution:

“Using our VR system for mainly pre-production has been a huge advantage for us. We’ve really been able to previsualize what the content will look like before it gets displayed and I believe that that’s really helped Kate Dawkins Studio to get ahead of the game.”

-Paul Seeger, Project Manager, Creative Technology

  • Client

    DCMS/BBC

  • Production Company

    Kate Dawkins Studio

  • Technology Partner

    Creative Technology Limited

  • Event Management

    The H Power Group

  • Content Creative Director

    Kate Dawkins

  • Content Senior Producer

    Jayne Hobart

  • Content Designers

    Kate Dawkins, Roxanne Silverwood, Alex Carvalho

  • Lead Animator

    Martin Stacey

  • Animators

    Sam Williams, Pete Mellor, Luke Busby, James Cook, Ben Ramasami

  • Sound Design

    Dan Savage

  • Talbot House Photographer

    James Medcraft

  • When

    July 30, 2017

  • Where

    Ypres, Belgium