The Macula, a leading Czech videomapping company, recently mesmerised a private audience of 600 VIP guests at the Rudolfinum music auditorium with the SIM/NEBULA: a 45 minutes long videomapping performance accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic orchestra, led by internationally renowned conductor Jiří Bělohlávek, the former principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

The Macula videomapping with Czech philharmonic orchestra. (All photos courtesy of The Macula via Vimeo)

We wanted to treat our guests to an unforgettable experience, and invited them to witness a unique sound and light performance in one of the oldest concert halls in Europe.

The Macula, a leading Czech videomapping company, recently mesmerised a private audience of 600 VIP guests at the Rudolfinum music auditorium with the SIM/NEBULA: a 45 minutes long videomapping performance accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic orchestra, led by internationally renowned conductor Jiří Bělohlávek, the former principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

The project marked the first fully immersive videomapping ever made in Czech Republic, involving a live orchestra of 118 musicians and projections on four sides of the auditorium (front, two sides and ceiling).

Intricate lighting patterns projected by The Macula videomapping technology.

This AV tour de force is arguably the longest videomapping ever created. With such unique features, this event will likely enter the pantheon of live projection. The content was broken into seven themes (Matter, Technology, Message, Mission, New World, Rendez-vous and Birth), expressing visual futuristic poems, and shaping the emergence of a cybernetic organism counting down its time code in acoustic waves of classical music. The project was developed in collaboration with 11 international artists (from UK, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Slovakia and of course Czech Republic).

To bring this resolutely high-tech feat to life on four different projection surfaces, The Macula used a total of 10 Barco digital projectors: four Barco HDX-W20 Flex 3-Chip DLP WUXGA projectors (each boasting 20,000 lumens), two Barco FLM-R22 SXGA+ (22,000 lumens) and four SLM-R12+ Performer (SXGA+, 12,000 lumens ). Resolume Arena 4 was coupled to two custom media servers for the native blending. The four Barco HDX projectors in quadrant layout projected content on the main facade while the FLM’s were dedicated to each side. To further enhance the immersion, four Barco SLM projectors mapped the ceiling of the Rudolfinum.

When all compositions were blended together, the resolution reached 16,000 pixels at 80,000 frames (30fps). On the production front, The Macula relied on Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects software to create the content and ensure seamless transitions between 3D and 2D.

The event was organised by the Czech Savings Bank (Česká spořitelna), the largest bank in Czech Republic. Commented Josef Havelka, Marketing Director at Česká spořitelna: "We wanted to treat our guests to an unforgettable experience, and invited them to witness a unique sound and light performance in one of the oldest concert halls in Europe. The Macula measured up to the grandiosity of the concert to deliver a gripping visual show."

The Rudolfinum project was first discussed at the 2014 SIGNAL Festival, when Producer Martin Posta met with Josef Havelka who was looking at connecting the best of Czech tradition with a cutting-edge audio visual performance for the bank’s 190th anniversary.

SIM / NEBULA from The Macula on Vimeo.

SIM/NEBULA is made of seven futuristic visual sections telling the story of a cybernetic organism counting down its time code in acoustic waves of classical music. The content mixes projection mapping with VFX and motion graphics.

Commented Martin Posta: "Our main challenge was to coordinate those 11 artists from around the world to create a highly qualitative artistic content in less than two months". The creative concept was curated by Amar Mulabegovic from The Macula.

Watch the video teaser here: https://vimeo.com/138894725