The city of Moscow witnessed the largest projection ever carried out on a building in the world

To celebrate your 20 birthday, the largest private bank in Russia, Alpha Bank, offered the city of Moscow the largest 3D video mapping projection in history coinciding with the 864th birthday of the Russian capital. More than 800.000 people witnessed the spectacular show designed by David Atkins that combined video projections on the facade of Moscow State University, pyrotechnics and live performances.

He 4 September, Moscow City Day, The Russian capital hosted a unique visual event: el Alfa-Show 4D, a splendid video projection show in Vorobyevy Gory (Sparrow Hills), commemorating the twenty-second anniversary of Alfa-Bank, the largest private bank in Russia. for half an hour, The facade of the main building of Moscow State University was transformed into a gigantic screen of 25.500 m² before the almost 800.000 people who witnessed an audiovisual show of enormous beauty.

The Alfa-Show 4D was Alfa-Bank's idea to celebrate its twenty-second birthday. Viktor Shkipin, director of Marketing de Alfa-Bank, explained that the entity has a long tradition in organizing large celebrations, including performances in the country by legendary stars. “Our choice of support to celebrate Alfa-Bank's anniversary was not accidental. Convinced that, from the technological point of view, our bank is the leader in Russia, we opt for the most technologically advanced public event support available today: a colossal multidimensional video projection”, declare.

The design of the show was the work of director David Atkins, public events organizer, and your company, David Atkins Enterprises (DAE). Atkins has produced shows such as the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver and Sydney Olympics, the Shanghai World Expo and the Doha Asian Games. Preparations for this assignment, first Atkins in Russia, It has taken several months.

Great projections
The technical execution of the visual component of the show corresponded to ETC, a company recognized for how it has been able to apply its rich experience in video mapping to large-scale videographic projections. This time the ETC team also resorted to the intensity power of the projectors Christie 3-chip DLP, putting on the ground a total of 81 projectors for the Alfa-Show 4D: a record in the current video mapping industry. Fifteen Christie Roadie HD+30K projectors with a luminous flux intensity of 30.000 ANSI lumens, y 66 Christie Roadster S+20K projectors 20.000 ANSI lumens intensity, They covered the entire façade, including its lateral surfaces. The projectors were divided into several groups, installed in towers built specifically for the occasion and mounted at various distances and angles along the flanks of the main building, on the roof of the central portico and in the central equipment room located in the highest tower, about six meters above the VIP boxes.

The projectors were controlled from a single Onlyview software platform developed by ETC. Ruslan Semenov, ETC general director for Russia, has pointed out in this regard that “all our servers worked in backup mode. So, in the event of an unexpected failure, would have been replaced instantly. In other words: We have a 100% guaranteed system”.

spectacular images
In the thirty minutes that the show lasted, the facade of Moscow State University underwent a series of transformations: into a gigantic aquarium first to stop and then disintegrate and become, successively, in the Taj Mahal, Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower. For a moment it even turned into a huge birthday cake.. The images flashed through the different historical periods until they reached the easily identifiable signs of our modern world... David Atkins let his imagination fly. The recurring image of the Alfa-Bank logo blended seamlessly into the plot line, providing the visual presentation with a common thread.

The event required intense preparations. To ensure visual consistency of images, all windows of the central tower of Moscow State University were covered with special panels. Several services of the institution participated in the process and even the students lent a hand, since part of the building is occupied by a student residence. In gratitude for your collaboration, The organizers invited them to the celebration.

many preparations
For two weeks and until the day of the show, teams of creative and technical specialists conducted field trials. Twenty-four technical experts provided on-site assistance to the video projection. Patrice Bouqueniaux, Project Director of ETC France, commented that the international ETC team already knew the University skyscraper: They had worked on it on Moscow City Day 2005 y, fourteen years before that, during Jean Michel Jarre's famous and dynamic slide and light projection show. “We must highlight, first of all, the enormous power of Christie projectors as well as their ability to operate in difficult or adverse conditions without losing any of their reliability. And trust is essential!!”, subraya Patrice.

Ruslan Semenov explained that, for your team, The project was an excellent opportunity to entertain viewers while highlighting the quality of Christie projectors and the excellence of the content generated by David Atkins.. The scope of the project made the work a very special challenge if we take into account that the building measures about 200 meters high by about 300 wide.

More than a thousand people participated in the creation of the Alfa-Show 4D. Two hundred trucks from various countries transported equipment for the event. A total of 2.184 cubic meters of metalwork were erected in the Sparrow Hills. Los 81 projectors were accompanied by 40 powerful spotlights: light cannons that shot luminous columns into the sky. The presentation included 5.000 pyrotechnic charges and 50.000 custody. A symbolic snowfall fell on the enchanted crowd and thousands of soap bubbles floated across the sky.. And we should not be surprised by the incorporation of a fourth dimension to video mapping: as part of the show, halfway through the event, the urban mountaineer Alain Robert, Known for climbing the tallest buildings on the globe without protection, climbed the Moscow skyscraper.

A unique project
At the press conference dedicated to the Alfa-Show 4D, Viktor Shkipin stated that the show was equivalent in terms of performance to a top-quality, month-long advertising campaign on federal television and in street advertisements costing about $6–8 million.. “This year we chose to give up television advertising and embark, instead of her, in this show. We are convinced that it will work better than any spot”, indicated.

“It has been a unique project”, resume David Atkins. “It is the first time that a building of this size has been used for a 3D projection., the first to include the 4D element and the first in which someone scales a building on which images are projected. It was the first time of many”.

The video projection culminated with an extraordinary fireworks show. Definitely, The audience gathered outside Moscow State University and the spectators watching the broadcast on television and the Internet will remember this event for a long time..

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