disguise serves up dynamic content for Sila Sveta’s IN TO immersive installation

The challenge

Recreating IN TO in a new venue six months after its debut required adjusting to new height measurements and flooring. A change of projectors was needed and visual optimisation was used to reduce the media server complement to a single gx 2c for eight outputs.

The setup was complex with eight Christie D4K40-RGB projectors as well as seven OptiTrack IR cameras and 21 18W IR illuminators utilised in Nizhny Novgorod with the content delivered from a disguise gx 2c.

The solution

The data from infrared cameras was processed in a proprietary tracker programme and transmitted to the server in the graphic block of the Notch programme. Developed by Sila Sveta’s Lead Engineer Stanislav Zenkov, the tracker programme in the TouchDesigner environment was the main trick of the installation.

IN TO’s content consisted of five blocks in two layers. The top one was real-time graphics and the bottom was pre-rendered content played on the disguise server. Real-time content was created based on data showing the position of visitors. A server with TouchDesigner captured an image from OptiTrack cameras, analysed it, then the tracker programme sent the coordinates and a mask to the compiled Notch block on the disguise server, which played back five blocks on the timeline simultaneously. A custom algorithm allowed Sila Sveta to track the movements of an unlimited number of people to power the responsive graphics.

The months spent preparing for the first installation in Perm meant that the second show required just two days for mounting the physical installation and only one day for software setup and calibration.