The Woman in White - West End and Broadway
Digital Antics have collaborated closely with renowned theatre video designers Dick Straker and Sven Ortel of Mesmer and Malcolm Mellows of XL Video to develop a revolutionary new bespoke video playback system for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical production The Woman in White at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End.
Digital Antics systems architect Quintin Willison developed and programmed the playback system to Mesmer’s requirements, creating this new solution featuring built in theatrical show control capabilities and multi-channel synchronous playback of high resolution graphics with real-time 3D warping to accurately map the graphics to the set and correct for optical distortion due to the obscure projection angles.
Key Functionality
- High Resolution Playback. Dual stream XGA resolution.
- Realtime distortion. Mapping moving video to a curved surface as well as correcting for off-axis projection angles and lens field of view. Soft-edge overlay and theatrical special effects including animated curtains and mattes.
- Advanced User Interface. Various software controls and interface mechanisms developed ‘on the job’ for lining up projectors in the virtual world, including joystick control.
- Twelve Playback Channels. Nine live and three backup (hot swap).
- Built-in Redundancy. Automatic player backup switching at the touch of a button from the control interface. This is a distinct advantage over other multi-channel distributed systems (e.g. Dataton Watchout) which do not feature any form of individual player aliasing.
- BARCO Projector Control. Full control over all ten BARCO projectors. Power, shutters and menu navigation via ethernet serial servers.
- Show Scripting Environment. Full graphically-oriented editing interface and layered (procedural and parallel) playback engine.
- Theatrical Cueing System. Built on top of the scripting playback engine was a higher level cue list environment to make the system simple to operate live.
- Turnkey Solution. This all-encompassing networked environment removed the need for any other playback or show control system meaning a consistent and controlled standard of reliability and user interface ease of use.
- Standards-based Solution. Using accepted technologies, e.g. Microsoft platform, ethernet connectivity (IP) and XML file formats.
Technologies
- Programming Languages: Native C++ (players) and Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (controller).
- Software Architectures: Microsoft Windows XP Professional, DirectX 9 and DirectShow.
- Hardware: Playback and control computers built to custom specification. Extron UTP/CAT5 AV distribution system. Ethernet serial port servers. USB to DMX dongle for control of moving mirror.
Key Video Department Credits
- Bill Dudley - Video Designer.
- Dick Straker, Mesmer - Projection Designer.
- Sven Ortel, Mesmer - Video Systems Technical Director and show programmer.
- Malcolm Mellows, XL Video - Project Management and supply of all projection and playback equipment.
- Richard Kenyon - Post Production and Compositing.
- Quintin Willison, Digital Antics - Playback computer hardware specification and bespoke applications development.
- Paul Scullion, Digital Antics - Content encoding and virtual digital line ups.
- Ian Galloway, Mesmer - Compositing.
- Damian Ridge, Really Useful Group - Video Operator (No. 1).
- Patrick Achegani, Really Useful Group - Video Operator (No. 2).
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