Hitachi - Inspire Life
March 2008
Hitachi Inspire Life, is a unique event, conceptualised and created to give a fuller and clearer understanding of Hitachi’s broad spectrum of work, philosophy and technology. This one-off event held at the QEII Centre, offered an opportunity to experience the current and future developments, first-hand.
The interactive event focused on a 25 minute walk through Hitachi´s vast range of technology, finishing in the exhibition and demonstration area. The walk through was designed to provide the delegate with a clear understanding of Hitachi’s breadth and depth of technology - looking at what is available today, and how it will help the consumer prepare for tomorrow.
Working alongside creative, design and brand agency, The Liquid Way, CT provided the technology and expertise to make the complex video elements work efficiently and effectively. An entrance tunnel and three main rooms formed the tour, the “Fabric of Life” / “Worklife”, “Homelife” and “Transport”. In addition, an event installed CCTV system allowed the audience flow to be monitored and managed remotely by the operators.
The first part of the journey directed delegates into a tunnel, this initial experience was designed to create a sense of excitement and anticipation to the tour. The tunnel was formed with 16 small LCD Monitors each with its own images sourced from a DVS 16 channel Video Server.
Once through the tunnel, the first and final rooms of the tour, “Fabric of Life / Worklife”, focused on a single 200º image (36m x 4m), soft edge blended, using 6 Panasonic PT-DW 10,000 lumens projectors. Flaming Pear created the HD video source, whilst Dataton Watchout, provided by CT, was used for its ability to replay High Resolution images. Dataton Watchout also has the unique ability to manipulate the images sent to the projectors, this function allows the engineer to compensate for the curved screen. Dave Boeck, CT Senior Project Designer, managed the installation of the Watchout system and the manipulation of the projected images on-site, comments, “The keystoning application in Watchout is great. It allows you to manipulate an image in a way that doesn’t distort the clarity, but does allow you to bend the image to fit a curved backdrop. We’ve used Watchout to create a single image on curved surfaces on a number of occasions and know that it achieves a great result.”
The second stage of the tour took delegates into “Homelife”, to experience the benefits of Hitachi’s innovative consumer products. This scenario was assisted with a single 10m x 3.5m rear projected image, achieved with a Barco FLM HD18 projector with short throw lens to form a sole backdrop for this scene.
The third area of the tour, “Transport” featured in a cinema environment. A 15m x 2.8m curved projected image took the audience on a tour of Hitachi’s automotive and rail technology. With a single image achieved with 2 soft edge blended Panasonic PT-DW 10,000 lumens projectors, delegates were truly encompassed with the curved image, achieved once again with the effective keystone application in Dataton Watchout.
CT’s Scott Burges, project managed the event and comments “CT enjoys designing and delivering complex, technology driven projects. With 3 individual rooms, requiring specialist engineers and complex Watchout programming, the team worked really hard to ensure the screens looked great”. Scott continues “With our large stock of HD projectors, it is great to be able to utilise them with a true HD source and output true HD. The event ran very smoothly and we are really pleased with our input for the tour”.
