Audio Video News

Every year more than a million people take in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in New York City, a holiday tradition featuring the iconic Rockettes that has been staged annually since 1933. If you haven’t seen the show, it is a spectacle bursting with talent, riveting choreography, live music, pyrotechnics, electronic wizardry, and larger-than-life visuals.

A few years ago the show’s producers used technology to modernize the classic show by moving the set design off the stage and out into the hall. Video projection that creates scenery behind the dancers is also mapped onto the proscenium arch and walls surrounding the audience in spectacular fashion. The transition between scenes becomes part of the show as the audience travels with the dancers to different locations throughout New York.

“This project takes architectural scale projection, the newest application of high power projection and warp and blend media servers, and applies it to the live stage and theater environment, directly adding to the excitement,” noted Blair Parkin, managing director at Visual Acuity.

At the heart of the technology used to create this immersive experience are 11 45-WUXGA three-chip DLP projectors from Digital Projection International (DPI), each delivering 30,000 lumens and projecting a 3D video-game-like narrative that pulls the audience into the show. Due to the varying depths within the proscenium, overcoming any shaded areas within the arch with bright imagery was the main objective.

Animations created by New York-based Batwin + Robin Productions playfully engage the audience in 180-foot-tall bright and colorful imagery as snowflakes float out into the audience, courtesy of those 3D projectors.

See a snippet of the updated classic here.