Projection mapping

Ordinary projection assumes a rectangle. Mapping does not. The projector throws onto a real object, and the content is warped so that it lands correctly on every plane, edge and curve of that object. Done well, the surface appears to change material, open up, or move.

Three things make it different from a normal video call-out. The content has to be built for that surface specifically, which means it cannot be commissioned until the surface is measured — a mapped show is a fabrication job and a content job at the same time. The projectors need enough brightness to overcome whatever ambient light exists, which outdoors usually means waiting for full dark and a real blackout indoors. And the alignment is done on site, on the object, in the hours before the show; it cannot be finished in advance.

That sequencing is what drives the cost and the calendar. A mapped piece needs a site survey early, a content lead-time measured in weeks, and technical time on site that a standard AV call does not assume.

Where the surface is simply a screen, ordinary projection or an LED wall will be cheaper and more reliable.

Corporate event production — owned inventory, our own crew, and a site survey before anything is specified.

• Rear projection Projecting from behind the screen instead of in front of it, so nobody walks through the beam and no presenter is ever lit up by the projector.
• Media server A purpose-built playback machine that drives screens reliably — the reason a show does not depend on somebody’s laptop not going to sleep.
• LED wall A screen built from modular LED panels bolted together, bright enough to read in daylight and sized to the room rather than to a projector lens.