Lisbon Under Stars– Immersive Spectacle
Lisbon, Portugal
Wallern (Austria), 11th September 2018 – Built between 1389 and 1423, the Convento do Carmo now stands in ruin but is nonetheless an iconic structure in the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon. Nestling on a hill overlooking Rossio Square and facing São Jorge Castle in the Chiado neighbourhood, the now Carmo Archaeological Museum is a popular attraction for tourists and residents alike – and therefore the perfect backdrop for renowned Portuguese multimedia company OCUBO to stage its latest immersive spectacular: Lisbon Under Stars– Immersive Spectacle.
Nuno Maya is co-founder, CEO and artistic director at OCUBO – which has successful event credits to its name both internationally on home soil. Lisbon Under Stars was entirely driven by the creative studio outfit, as Maya explains: “Our recent video-mapping projects have grabbed a lot of attention both in Portugal and abroad. We’ve been creating large scale shows here in Lisbon since 2013 when the city council saw the opportunity to attract more tourists. With Lisbon Under Stars, we took the initiative to put the show together as an independent cultural project in support of the European Year of Cultural Heritage – and celebrate the city’s unique history in a very innovative way.”
With an eight week run from 3 May to 30 June, two 45-minute shows nightly (except Sundays) used a unique combination of 360 degree digital animation, live action and special effect projections – taking spectators back in time to experience the history of Lisbon over 600 years. Whether embarking on a sailing ship during the Portuguese discoveries, visiting exotic landscapes reached by navigators, witnessing the earthquake that shook Lisbon in 1755 and rebuilding the city – people were free to walk around the 1,900sqm vast site and immerse themselves in Lisbon’s history from different vantage points as it unfolded in all its glory on Carmo’s walls.
“The show was shaped by the history of the site - but with complete autonomy in terms of our artistic approach, we were able to express the facts as we wished – an artist’s dream!” says Maya of the creative process. “We were 100% independent from concept to content creation, from technical set-up to operation, from audience management to communication. One of the things this creative freedom allowed is for us to work with ambitious technical solutions which push the boundaries of what is possible – like AV Stumpfl’s Wings Vioso software, which is very reliable.”
Driving Lisbon Under Stars were 13x 16,000 lumen video projectors and nine video servers with AV Stumpfl’s Wings Vioso software used for the mapping, show control and video outputs for the video projects. A surround effect was created by a dBTechnologies DVA system six multichannel audio system, also controlled by AV Stumpfl’s Wings Vioso. As Maya explains: “The Wings Vioso software was truly integral to the whole production: It is our favourite mapping software because of its tool sets, timeline options and show control capabilities. The possibility to scale the system to more video slave servers makes it very useful for projects where we have multiple projection locations all connected via local network.”
Wings Vioso media server technology is a great tool for media distribution, multi-display, warping, projection mapping, automatic softedge blending, interacting and show control rendering. It is therefore an ideal solution for creative companies such as OCUBO who are handling content production in resolutions of 4K, 8K and beyond. With Wings Vioso technology, users can automatically calibrate multiple projectors for softedge blending and warp the content onto uneven surfaces, enabling themed attractions and rental stagers alike to create stunning shows and control video, audio, live signals device and special effects on one single platform.
Maya is in no doubt that the execution of OCUBO’s creative was reliant on the Wings Vioso software. “This was a very ambitious and unique project on a creative and technical level as we delivered almost a hundred 45 minute shows over a two-month period in a 360 degree, 1,900sqm location. The perfect video-mapping result was only made possible thanks to the fine-tuning of Wings Vioso’s warping tools. We needed a platform capable of handling huge amounts of data files across multiple servers. Thanks to its networking capabilities, the AV Stumpfl system helped us to transfer, manage and synchronise all the video files. The mapping complexity was also extremely high but the warping tools and setup merging options in the software allowed us to do it with relative speed and ease versus the size of the task.”
Presented in both Portuguese and English, the multisensory feast was voiced by Portuguese TV personality Catarina Furtado with a host of Portuguese music stars appearing across the musical score and artists participating in the specially created films. More than 30,000 people witnessed the immersive spectacular over the course of its eight week run.
Maya enthuses: “The project was a true labour of love for us at OCUBO – a multi-directional work which we put our heart and soul into in order to capture and convey the essence of our city and country. AV Stumpfl gave us the means to deliver something truly special – a one-of-a-kind show which made a huge impact and lasting impression on all who saw it.
“The feedback has been phenomenal, especially with regards to the content we created and the technical solutions we used. With that in mind we have lots more projects in the pipeline where we plan to use AV Stumpfl’s products – not only do they super-serve our needs, but the team is also excellent, responsive and a great partner to us.
“We are already very satisfied with AV Stumpfl’s current system, and impressed to see the company constantly up its game with new solutions. But when the team showed us the new PIXERA system, we were not expecting anything like this. They really blew our minds and we simply cannot wait to get our hands on a beta version of this coming PIXERA media server system. So look out for an even bigger and better Lisbon Under Stars in 2019!” he concludes.
PHOTOS: © LISBON UNDER STARS, OCUBO, 2018.