![Optoma rises to BYOB projection event challenge](/ContentStorage/Generic/CaseStudy/content1/11fc91ee-2195-4d57-a814-28783bbfcc25.jpg)
Industry Art |
Region Milton Keynes, UK |
Type of Solution HD36 and ML1500e |
Installation Company BYOB |
. |
Started by visual artist Rafael Rozedaal, BYOB is an international movement of one-night exhibitions where artists collaborate on-site to create a moving image performance. |
Beam, an arts and music initiative based in Milton Keynes, was planning its fourth BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer) event for November 2015 at MK Gallery.
Started by visual artist Rafael Rozedaal, BYOB is an international movement of one-night exhibitions where artists collaborate on-site to create a moving image performance.
BYOB events have been held in over 40 international cities. Although many artists bring their own, event organisers need to procure additional projectors to ensure there are enough high quality, high resolution models for all artists to use.
All previous BYOB MK events have taken place at the gallery's Project Space opposite the main gallery. This year’s event would occupy the whole building – a first for BYOB MK and a first for MK Gallery. The shift in scale effectively quadrupled the wall space and meant projection distances needed to be significantly greater. Beam needed brighter and higher resolution projectors than ever before.
Beam chose two Optoma projectors – the bright 1080p HD36 and the ultra mobile ML1500e.
Event organiser, Gareth Horner, said: “As one of the few manufacturers focussed purely on projection we knew they'd understand our challenge. The projectors in their orientation, angle, distance and brightness needed to be as expressive as the art they are projecting.”
The HD36 was placed at the end of the 14m long gallery to project a 6-metre wide Full HD image on the wall opposite. This was used to show works shot by Andrew Horner. His clean, super-crisp art switches between black & white street photography to vibrant, over-saturated and colour-corrected CG visuals.
The HD36 couples high-end home cinema performance with bright, vibrant visuals to produce high-resolution viewing without dimming the lights. This Full 3D 1080p projector has powerful built-in speakers, vertical lens shift and boasts a brightness of 3,000 ANSI lumens.
The ML1500e was used by Thomas Cuthbertson and Tom Guilmard for their vivid stop-motion animation.
Powered by the latest LED technology, the ML1500e weighs just 1.4kg but is no lightweight! It has 1,500 LED brightness, HDMI connectivity, HD Ready resolution, a touchpad interface and built-in speakers. When switched-on, it is up to full brightness in a few seconds and stops instantly - with no cool down required. Presenters can wirelessly share and present documents and photos stored on a mobile device or content can be displayed wirelessly from a PC, Mac or mobile device using Optoma’s mini Wi-Fi dongle which connects to the USB port.
The walls of MK Gallery really came alive for one-night on 21 November.
Gareth said: “The quality and performance of the Optoma projectors caused a constant swarm of people around them.
“The ML1500e was placed just 2m from the wall and produced an outstandingly bright image over 100" wide. It easily handled the break-neck frame-rate which took many by surprise.
” He added: “Everyone wanted a photo in front of the visuals. The huge sense of scale made the space feel like a multiplex-cinema with the walls removed. Some of the works had intricate detail which encouraged close inspection- forcing visitors to move in close and come face-to-face with the visuals.
“You really have to attend a BYOB event to understand it, and with BYOB MK IV - you had to see it to believe it.
With thanks to Churchill Studio for the use of all images.