Panasonic's imposing projection of Passchendaele

One hundred years ago, between July and November 1917, the fields of Flanders witnessed one of the bloodiest episodes of the First World War. Officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele become infamous for not only the scale of causalities but also for the amount of mud.

The commemoration of 100 years since the Battle, was broadcast by the BBC over a two day event held in Ypres, Belgium.

The imposing medieval building of the Cloth Hall, became the centre piece for this event, illuminated with incredible content designed by Creative Technology, supplier of specialist Audio Visual equipment. The main structure, originally erected in the 13th century became the commercial heart for the city, playing an important role as the place where the trading of cloth and wool was carried out.

Through an already established relationship, the BBC approached Creative Technology who worked with Kate Dawkins Studio, to provide an amazing projection for the remembrance of the Battle of Passchendaele.

“I think everyone who watched it was moved by it.”

To make this poignant event work across such a giant canvas, standing 125m wide and 70m tall, Creative Technology chose Panasonic for the projection, providing58 projectors to deliver the spellbinding, high brightness images required.

“With 58 projectors and 14 photon servers, we made sure that every projector had a backup, so there was a full redundancy system in place,” says Paul Seeger, Project Manager at Creative Technology.

"It was a spectacular display..."

Consisting of 49 x PT-DZ21K's and 9 x PT-RZ31K's, the solution had to cover not just one, but four facades – the front and side of the hall as well as the front and side of the clock tower, making this incredibly complex when considering and designing the content and positioning the projectors.

“A big challenge we came across when installing the projectors, was to ensure high quality viewing for the audience from a variety of viewing angles,” explains Seeger. “Therefore, working with Kate Dawkins Studios who designed the content, we had to think of multiple points of views when designing the content."

The 20,000 lumens PT-DZ21K was supported by nine 30,000 lumens PT-RZ31K solid shine laser projectors. Available in both WUXGA and SXGA+, the PT-RZ31K series is the brightest in the Panasonic range with an exceptionally compact and lightweight body, harnessing powerful SOLID SHINE laser technology. In normal operation, the RZ31K is designed to be maintenance free for 20,000 hours.

“It took quite a number of days to get all the projectors in and lined up, as it was quite a big job, with a lot of signal distributions,” commentsSeeger.

He continues, “With every inch of the medieval façade covered in lights, it was a spectacular display, made even better by having the opportunity to use such cutting edge technology.It required all of our knowhow and experience, to be able to produce something of this scale fora massive audience, telling such a meaningful story.”

“It was a great honour to be part of such a historic event.I think everyone who watched it was moved by it.”