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Hippos at the Nobel Banquet
The 2008 Nobel Banquet, held on 10th December in Stockholm, had two Hippos on the guest list this year. No, they weren't invited to dine with the King and Queen of Sweden and their 1300 guests, they were busy with the stunning visual effects used at the highest profile event of the year in Sweden, as well as widely recognised and watched throughout the world.
This was only the second year that Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers have been used at the event to create the striking video effects throughout the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall. The Swedish team of lighting designer Per Sundin, production manager Ola Melzig, and content guru Peppe Tannemyr of Beacon Digigobos seem to be taking Hippotizers with them everywhere these days.
Video screens have been used during the banquet in the past, but this year they spanned all 14 of the ornately sculpted windows on the second floor of the Blue Hall. Each window was backed with 42 square meters (450 square feet) of Hibino Chromatek DLU screen. Green Hippo's HippoCritter was used to drive the LEDs in the windows, using the slowdown/speed to be able to correct the precise look and exact speed for the content, plus colour adjustment. It was essential that the colours looked good in the outgoing broadcast. The units integrated with the HippoNet control protocol and run by timeline only. There was no need for a separate console. Content was matched to the resolution and custom made, but through shutter and zoom, it almost perfectly matched a standard DigiGobo to work with those functions. Tannemyr remarked: "The Critter has shown to be so easy to fill in on LED walls, or parts that need to have a separate design, instead of going to complex programming."
To complete the look, the massive ceiling of the Blue Hall was used as a canvas for video projections. Two Barco R18 Projectors, managed by Massteknik, were used to project digital content from two Green Hippo Hippotizer HD v3.0.12 media servers. The projectors were positioned in opposite windows on the first floor, forming a single seamless 131'×105' (40×32m) area on the ceiling. Oddly enough, the older projectors were required to provide the 4:3 aspect ratio needed to fit the shape of the ceiling correctly.
Tannemyr created the custom Hippotizer content for the ceiling that included sculpted medallions, clouds, and fireworks. Tannemyr explained: "For this particular event, the set up time is very short, and in many cases Per won't know exactly what he wants until all the lights are up and we've had a chance to rehearse with the entertainment, which is sometimes on the day of the banquet. I covered my bases this year, providing 108 different files for the event. He'll choose around eight of them and I won't know which ones until the next day! The Hippotizers manage this flawlessly - I just love working with them." The window and ceiling Hippotizers were co-programmed and supervised by Morgan Brown, who kept his remarks about the Hippotizers concise: "They're awesome."
Sundin claimed: "This is a wonderful show to do year after year - creating a beautiful and warm environment while it's usually snowing outside. It was almost believable to look up and see blue sky with clouds floating by. Even though the ceiling is not designed to be a focal point, we see the guests looking up all night and smiling."
Photo by Ralph Larmann.
6th January 2009
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