Panasonic brings mapping with real-time tracking to the entertainment industry

The manufacturer has presented in a virtual event its innovative software development kit with real-time tracking for its PT-RQ35K projector, offering endless creative possibilities and high-quality visual effects.

With the title of reCreate, reLive, reLaunch, Panasonic has held a virtual event to analyze trends, current and future, of the location-based entertainment and creative production market, in which there were representatives of this industry.

Hartmut Kule, European marketing director at Panasonic, has kicked off this virtual event by describing these trends and explaining how companies can build the attractions of tomorrow with today's technology., showing them the opportunity to get ahead of the competition.

In this sense, Paul Boyland, Head of Panasonic Entertainment Business Division, has shown the creative possibilities that its new projection mapping technology with real-time tracking provides for the entertainment and AV production sectors, fusing digital and physical realities to achieve truly immersive results.

This new solution allows you to achieve high quality visual effects by projecting images in real time, with millimeter precision, on fast-moving objects using software development kit with real-time tracking (ET-SWR10) for Panasonic PT-RQ35K projector.

If this projector is used together with an infrared emitter, a camera, a scoreboard and a content server you get a projection mapping system with real-time tracking, especially ideal for live entertainment events, theme parks, museums and electronic sports.

Thanks to this kit, the laser projector with three DLP chips and a power of 30.500 lumens can accept and output HD signals from 240 Hz, that offer improved images with a latency of just 5 ms, and also offers the possibility of virtual tracking in real time, calibrating the location of moving objects in a very precise way.

Incorporating the kit-specific software into the content server allows images to be easily mapped onto the moving object or person, using a single wired connection between the projector and content server (display HDMI port).

Thanks to this real-time tracking projection mapping technology, the Panasonic SDK can support an object, while the client can customize how to have more to achieve tracking of multiple objects, as Chad Kunimoto clarified to the media, Panasonic Theme Entertainment Industry Development Manager.

“With this innovative real-time technology, "The creative possibilities are endless," said Hartmut Kulessa. (in the top left image)-. I have seen perfect projections of logos and images on basketballs moving quickly and flying across the court, as well as impressive visual effects that follow the artists' every movement as they jump around the stage.".

As this manager highlighted at the event, “This solution is ideal for location-based entertainment venues that want to engage audiences with new and exciting immersive experiences.”, as well as so that production companies can create innovative visual advertising and marketing campaigns”.

Industry analysis and vision

During the event, Joe Conover, Head of Live Events at Panasonic USA, y Brian Allen, vp. technology and experiences Illuminator, specialist in producing, market and manage experiential and immersive entertainment shows, have been the protagonists of a session to create this type of events.

For this, An Illuminarium success story has been shown that “transports visitors across the African continent with the world's first virtual safari”, which uses Panasonic technology and which Digital AV will analyze soon.

As Allen has pointed out, “This project illustrates and materializes the technological possibilities available today to help reinvent the world of immersive attractions”.

In the virtual session titled 'How to surprise the audience: technologies to create immersive experiences', Thomas Vertommen y Ben Mitchell, Panasonic Product Marketing Director and Placemaking Systems Engineer, respectively, have shown the options for designing immersive attractions.

In this regard, Managers have highlighted the new ultra-short distance zoom lenses (UST) for your LCD laser projectors, that open new possibilities of visual and immersive experience to the location-based entertainment industry, by integrating the audience into the action (more details in Digital AV).

Besides, Vetommen and Mitchell have made an overview of the potential that 3D systems bring to this industry, as well as low latency playback (240 Hz) to improve image quality and deliver a more realistic experience to theme parks and attractions, among other topics.

Finally, Attendees to this virtual event have also been able to learn about the vision of top-level representatives of the attractions and entertainment industry.. Jan Maarten de Raad and Robin vander Want participated in this thematic forum, CEO and project development director, respectively, of JoraVision; Stephane Bataille, CEO of Alterface, and Chad Kunimoto and Thomas Vertommen, de Panasonic.