Barco was selected as the projection and video processing provider for the opening ceremony of the second Summer Youth Olympic Games held in Nanjing, China. A total of 112 Barco HDF-series high-brightness projectors and 56 High End Axon HD Pro media servers were employed for the stage projection and visual content.
After the 2008 Beijing Olympics the Youth Olympic Games are the second Olympic competition to be held in China. Sha Xiaolan, a well-known lighting design master in China, was the chief designer for the lighting and video at the ceremony.
The opening ceremony for the event included a video projection system that converted the entire floor of the stadium into a giant canvas. According to Mr. Sha, the ceremony was the largest projection project of its kind in the world to date. The feat was accomplished with the help of 112 Barco projectors, as mentioned earlier, that had 26,000 lumens brightness. The projectors were mounted on top of the bleachers on both side and covered an area greater than 10,140m2 from a distance of 120m.
The projection mapping team had to take into account multiple factors such as the large scale geometric correction needed, stitching, blending, multi-layer superposition and much more. Barco’s SIMCAD virtual stage design software was employed to help. The projection area was divided into 14 sections with 2x7 stitching and blending in each section. The same picture was projected by eight projectors. Fiber optic cables linked the projectors to 56 media servers.