Evening dresses that seem to come to life thanks to projectiondesign and Dataton technology

A spectacular display of more than 60 suit models from the last six decades of fashion design, 'Evening outfits: British glamor since 1950', It is the first exhibition to use the newly renovated fashion galleries at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Featuring a series of flowing runway and red carpet evening dresses that are as mesmerizing as they are beautiful to look at, The exhibition has acquired a special dimension thanks to an AV installation in which Dataton's projectiondesign and Watchout solutions have played a fundamental role.

Digital signage is today an everyday element in new museums and galleries, but a recent installation at London's Victoria and Albert Museum demonstrates how AV technology can also be used to enhance exhibits in older buildings. For the first exhibition in the museum's renovated fashion galleries, titled 'Evening Gowns': British glamor since 1950', have been used 4 pairs of F32 DLP projectors projectiondesign to project an image into each of the four niches on the upper level of the space.

The design of the system has been carried out by Sysco and the integration has corresponded to Electrosonic, while the Watchout software Dataton has been used to adjust the images to the shape of the niches.

Robert Simpson, founder of Electrosonic, has explained that “The exhibition is on two levels and occupies a splendid vaulted space, with four niches that lead into it. It is designed like a kind of huge wedding cake, with the circular screen following the drawing of the splendid domed structure located just above. Items from V's permanent collection&A are on the ground floor, while the dresses that have been temporarily transferred to the museum are on the top.”

Passion for fashion

“To meet the specific requirements of this installation, We turned to projectiondesign as the only manufacturer capable of providing us with an elegant and compact solution with the F32 projector that uses wide-angle lenses and precision optics, as well as a large number of updates, which were very important for a project like this. In addition to its installation flexibility, The F32s are capable of running at very high resolution, WUXGA, which perfectly transmits the image quality, color accuracy, the sharpness and brightness of video sequences. Projectors also have a low cost of ownership, which is a very attractive benefit for the V&A. It was a huge job to get everything working well., but the end result is very nice”, added Bob Simpson.

Anders Løkke, director de Marketing de projectiondesign, has pointed: “The ability to provide projectors that meet specific facility needs is one of the things that sets projectiondesign apart from other manufacturers.. Around 7.500 people visit the evening dress exhibition of the V&A, and we are delighted to have played a key role in bringing this historic project to fruition”.

“The V&A specially commissioned photographs of some of the models taken by fashion photographer David Hughes, so it seemed natural to try to incorporate them into the exhibition. This was carried out by Hollins Rollo of the Fletcher Wilson production group, who designed video sequences to appear in niches “, added Simpson.

Seamless blend’

The four niches form curved projection surfaces that are taller than they are wide, requiring the use of a pair of vertically stacked projectors for each niche, so that a sequence of photographs from the collection can be projected into the four large niches protruding from the dome of the museum's fashion galleries. With no alternative but to use the top level of the exhibition display as the location for the projectors, the integration team designed special cases for them, with a color matching the decoration and perforated to allow ventilation.

“These niches create an unusual and spectacular projection surface, but since they have a compound curvature, we needed to warp each pair of projected images, as well as combining them together without problems. This is what Watchout allows us to do, and the results are very surprising “, Bob Simpson stated.

Dataton Marketing Director, Fredrik Svahnberg, has added: “The museum market has always been a key element for Watchout when it comes to new build facilities, but now we are also seeing long-established facilities embrace our technology as a means to exploit the natural beauty of their traditional architecture.”. The V Museum&A was built in the second half of the 19th century.

“The V&A is a great example of this.. Watchout's blending and geometric correction features have allowed the museum to use projection in a way it could not have otherwise imagined., and we are delighted that our long relationship with Electrosonic has created a facility that all of us in the AV technology sector can be proud of”, Svahnberg stated.

British fashion retrospective

Under the title 'Evening dresses: British glamor since 1950', the exhibition presents 60 evening dresses from 1950 until now. Spread over two floors, The exhibition shows designs made especially for social events such as private parties, state events, debutante balls, opening nights and red carpet events. It is a tour of evening wear from the vast V collection&A, from designers such as Norman Hartnell, Victor Stiebel, Zandra Rhodes, Catherine Walker, Jonathan Saunders and Hussein Chalayan, as well as current dresses from Roland Mouret collections, Giles, Erdem, Roksanda Illincic, Antonio Berardi and Mary Katrantzou. The result is a stunning example of British fashion design at its most elegant and suggestive..

• Customer:
  Victoria&Albert Museum
• Integrator:
  Electrosonic
• Projectors:
  F32 de projectiondesign
• Software:
  Watchout the Dataton
• Design:
  Sysco

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjkyIeJ5plc[/youtube]

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