Beaming There
Real-time virtual display takes 12,000 convention attendees
on a jaunt from Las Vegas to the stars and back
By Robert L. Lindstrom
Virtual World
Traveler
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Clockwise
from foreground: Robin Taylor; Burt West, J Burton West; John
Fassett, Mirage Digital
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The SHRM president
began the conference with a speech about the future direction of the
society and the profession. To the attendees watching the stage, he
appeared to be a sole figure on a large green wasteland. But on the
two 16-by-20-foot main screens, as well as on the eight delay screens
flanking the audience, the executive appeared to be standing in front
of a 20-foot-tall “star gate.” The CGI animation made the
center set piece disappear, putting in its place a whirling, humming
structure crackling with energy bolts. On cue, the executive stepped
across a painted mark on the stage. On-screen, he was suddenly transported
to Greece, then Africa, then Times Square and, finally, the moon.
There is a one-frame lag between the video I-mag and the CGI digital
image of the person, says Robin Taylor, owner of VideoMon, which specializes
in doing road-shows for rock bands. The frame is buffered so that the
audience does not see the difference between the live and the virtual
images. A bit trickier is the need to keep the live sound in sync with
the digital display. Sound-delay circuitry was used to keep everything
in sync, he explains.
In one of the most effective moments of the SHRM conference, an engraved
crystal bowl rose on a virtual pedestal from the floor of the stage.
As names were called for the awards ceremony, the display screens showed
the recipients walking behind the bowl. In real time, the computers
interpolated the live characters and the crystal bowl so that the image
of the recipients could be seen directly through the glass with realistic
distortion.
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Brian
Congrove, Williams/Gerard Productions; Ted Fowler, Ed & Ted’s
Excellent Lighting; Yoshi Kumagai, Mirage Digital.
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To add a bit of
humor and theatricality to the awards segment, Taylor’s 16-year-old
son was dressed in a completely digital green suit, including hood.
When it came time for a plaque or other award to be delivered, he carried
it onto the stage. While the audience could easily see the green-suited
teenager on the stage, on-screen he was invisible, and the award appeared
to be floating magically toward its intended target.
“I was really pleased with what we accomplished,” says Block.
“It worked because it was produced flawlessly. It looked seamless.
People were impressed.” If anything, Block feels in retrospect
that she and the producers might have under-utilized the VR capabilities.
“The hardest challenge was to understand what it could and couldn’t
do. Maybe we held back a bit too much.”
Next time SHRM goes virtual, she says, they will let their imaginations
take them wherever they want to go.
Robert L. Lindstrom, former executive editor of AVVMMP, is the executive
director of The Digital Exploration Society (www.digitalexplorers.com).
caption1
Robin Taylor of VideoMon with the invisible presenter, part of
the huge production team that created SHRM’s Imagination 2000
caption2
Williams/Gerard Productions of Washington, DC, was lead producer
for the event, which involved live, real-time virtual reality presented
with a series of Roadie projectors from Christie Digital Systems to
an audience of more than 12,000 SHRM members.
caption3
Marty Lesser of VideoMon, the company that handled the staging
of the event and helped integrate the VR effects into the rest of the
presentation
caption4
Photographs by Michael Sexton
| TOOLBOX These were among the products used to produce the SHRM conference. |
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| Arri 1K and 2K Fresnels | Radamec Tracking Heads |
| Canon 55:1 lenses | SGI Octane and O2 offline graphics engines and Onyx 2 IR2 supercomputers |
| Christie Digital 8K and 10K Roadie projectors (2) and Christie Digital Roadster projectors (8) | Sierra Digital Link – A2D/D2A, 16X16 router and 32X32 Digital Router |
| Crest 52-Channel Console | Sony D-30 triax cameras |
| EAW Loudspeakers | Ultimatte 8 Digital Keyer |
| Ensemble Designs Delay/Buffer | Vari*Lite VL7s |
| Leitch Distribution and Mirage Digital 3D Scenery Library and Corporate 3D EFX | Video West EFX Racks w/EQs |
| Mirage Digital Portable Compositing Soft Goods and Flooring and Digital Virtual Flypack | Wholehog II controller |
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