Olympics 2004
August 2004
CT MEET ‘ALLEGORY’ TECHNICAL CHALLENGE AT OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY
Creative Technology London were contracted by Jack Morton Worldwide to provide a turnkey video solution for the spectacular Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Andrew Hawker, CT’s Technical Director, worked on the project for a year, and was responsible for designing and installing the projection system. Using eight Barco XLM25HD video projectors, images were projected onto eight floating ‘rock fragments’ during the ‘Allegory’ section of the opening ceremony, played out to a narrative and soundtrack of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony.
‘Allegory’ was the most technically-challenging part of the ceremony, and took the audience on a journey through landmark periods of Greek history — spanning thousands of years — using sculpture as a metaphor.
When the galaxy of floating rocks surrounding the central feature of a cube rose into the air, the faces of the rock fragments were transformed through video into images of human faces and bodies.
Video playback was from eight channels of Dataton Watchout, running synchronously, each image projected at a resolution of 1280 x 720 to make use of the XLM25HD's widescreen chip.
The widescreen images, representing “a celebration of the beauty and diversity of humanity” were rotated through 90°, using Catalyst moving heads mounted to each projector to display the portrait images over eight metres high, for a worldwide TV audience of over four billion.
CT used Watchout as the best playback medium because it facilitated multiple channel synchronous high resolution playback, and allowed Dave Boeck, CT’s Watchout programmer/designer, to create digital projection masks so that the images could fit the abstract shape of the rock fragments. All signal paths were RGB progressive scan, and distribution around the stadium was via optical fibre.
“Andrew and his team produced brilliant results; the projected images looked stunning, both in the stadium and on TV,” says Charlie Whittock, CT’s project director. “Jack Morton Public Events produced an amazing show and we’re extremely proud to have been part of such a prestigious and successful event.”
Director of Jack Morton Public Events, David Zolkwer, summarised, “For us the greatest achievement has been to bring form to such an intelligent and ambitious creative narrative, with apparent elegant simplicity. Our combined team of production and technical experts has harnessed the talent, innovative thinking, passion and the very latest technology to present to the world a story steeped in ancient culture, but which conveys a totally contemporary message that resonates in the hearts and minds of all of us across the world.”
CT were part of the Avesco team that worked alongside Jack Morton as the official provider of audio-visual services to the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games.
