“Flow” final event was culmination of happenings, performances, dancing and music spectacles that took part in Wrocław, revealing over 60 years of Wrocław’s history. Scenario created by Chris Baldwin – director, curator, creator of Teatro de Creacion and specialist of creations on open spaces, mostly demanding performances – and aid of cooperating with him music director, Alan Urbanek, was divided into four acts. Each part was musically illustrated by four young composers - Udi Perlman, Amir Shpilman, Jiri Kabat, and Paweł Romańczuk, working with four orchestras in order to create Flow’s Cantata. As for numbers: 300 artists performed on stage, also 600 people, 4 large ships and 41 sailing boats on river Odra were involved. Spectacle was watched by 50 thousand viewers by the River Odra, on Dunikowskiego Boulevard and also online, thanks to live stream. The Flow finale was astonishing light and mapping spectacle, with fireworks included as well.
d3 solution
To provide show integration on such scale, VES company, known from creating large lighting and multimedia installations, chose d3 as a solution. d3 project created by Łukasz Meliński involved using 22 multimedia projectors and following d3 hardware: 1 x 4x4pro fitted with DVI VFC cards and 1 x 4x2pro. To make installation possible, network of d3 machines was split – 4x2pro machine worked across the river providing signal for projectors that couldn’t fit into 4x4pro. Normally it would be an impediment, but not for remotely controlled d3’s connected through d3net.
Time for light and multimedia programming was shortened to minimum thanks for WYSIWYG and d3 pre-programing and visualization capabilities, therefore Paweł “Spider” Pająk, creative show director and lighting designer could deliver it on time with his GrandMA2 operators: Michał Parzych, Marcin Szczakiel and Tomasz Szwelicki. Also final adjustments could be made during day, because summer June nights in Poland were too short for that (it was dark only for about 6 hours every night).
Another advantage of d3, particularly useful for Łukasz Meliński and Krzysztof Grabowski, who operated it, was ability to control machines through spread network (also programming by the river and on FOH without moving master machine). This, with a little aid from binoculars allowed them to perfectly map projectors into the building facades and fragments of river channel walls. Projection was displayed on “Ostrów Tumski” ("Cathedral Island") buildings - the oldest part of the city of Wrocław.
d3 also behaved perfectly when controlled by lighting consoles – 3 x GMa2’s linked together, allowing show to be synced between light and multimedia.
Credits:
"FLOW" Multimedia Show & Performance.
Wroclaw, European Capitol of Culture 2016.
Client: IMPART 2016 Festival Centre
Director & ECoC Curator: Chris Baldwin
Technical Producer: Jacek Warzyński
ECoC Production Coordinator: Asia Margolt
Producer: Grzegorz Grzesiczak
Technical Coordinator: Wojtek Igielski
Show producer: VES
Creative Show Director & Lighting Designer: Paweł "Spider" Pająk
Visual artist: Piotr Maruszak
Multimedia designer and d3 set up : Łukasz Meliński
MA2 d3 programmer & operator: Tomasz Szwelicki
MA2 programmer & operator: Michał Parzych, Marcin Szczakiel
d3 operator: Łukasz Meliński, Krzysztof Grabowski
