Christie Widget Designer brought Vivid Sydney's gigantic puppet to life 2018

The multimedia experience The Liminal Hour featured the illuminated and walking puppet of 6 meters tall Marri Dyin. For its staging, two Christie Pandoras Box Widget Designers were used and 350 luces Led.

The Australian partner of Christie, Mandylights, has played a key role in the transformation of the Barangaroo precinct, Located on Sydney's Wulugul Walk, for the event held within the framework of the festival Vivid Sydney 2018.

The multimedia experience, designed by artists Jacob Nash and James Brown, Mandylights y Visualturth & Physical, titulada The Liminal Hour, featured a six-meter-high walking, illuminated puppet named Marri Dyin, who wandered through the space interacting with the spectators. Was, besides, several moments in which the lights and sound of the venue merged with elements integrated inside the doll to create a large-scale spectacle.

The project was commissioned by Barangaroo Delivery Authority to promote their unique creative program, share stories of the place and pay tribute to the femininity in the figure of Barangaroo, a historical female character from Aboriginal culture, which gives its name to the new neighborhood of the great Australian city.

Mandylights was the company responsible for Marri Dyin's lighting design, which included two Christie Pandoras Box Widget Designer units, as well as 350 Interior LED lights managed wirelessly and controlled from an iPad and an external lighting control system.

“In this show it was essential that the lighting and audio had an organic appearance and flowed, and that the transitions between cues and tracks were as natural as possible, regardless of origin and destination. This meant that simply playing pre-recorded content would not be enough and we would need to have a good front-end for the actors.. What led us to opt for the Widget Designer, because it allows us to customize a front-end interface that would give the Erth puppeteers everything they needed”, Clint Dulieu declared, Mandylights technical designer.

As an advanced surface control structure, which allows the user to create user interfaces and interaction logic that involves connecting the different visual control components, The Widget Designer has a wealth of elements ideal for node-based visual programming. With its intuitive interface, allows, both professionals and specialists without programming experience, create truly immersive interactive experiences.

Of the two Widget Designer units used in Sydney, the first was intended for the main control motor, located inside the puppet, and was installed incorporated into a custom system built inside a waterproofed container. The second was deployed in the main control room, used as a bridge for receiving cue commands from the QLab show control, for sending to the GrandMA2 lighting control system of MA Lighting via telnet.

“With the Widget Designer we had a control solution that satisfied all our specific technical needs but without sacrificing the artistic and creative demands of the puppeteers., which represented a huge challenge. For several nights we project the vision of an area of ​​the city in a spectacular way, with an enthusiastic reception from the public and with all the technical elements working perfectly in each session”, remaraca Dulieu.