Technical Direction Company (TDC) gives Spice readers an insight into its epic technical production plans for Vivid Sydney.
After 11 months of planning and research into new technology and trends, TDC, the company behind the projection of visual illuminations and interactive technology, is finalising their design for city-wide multimedia that will be deployed across the festival’s footprint and brought together with participating local and international artists and designers.
TDC employs 35 staff working full-time to produce a massive 11,500-metres square of video projection in excess of 120 million pixels. Over 70 projectors will be deployed in custom-made projection towers located in and around Sydney.
TDC’s work will be found on some of Sydney’s most iconic buildings and locations including the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Customs House, Cadmans Cottage, Sydney Harbour Bridge Pylon for Bangarra Dance Theatre, Taronga Zoo Centenary Celebrations, Central Park precinct, AMP Building for the McGrath Foundation, The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney precinct and Darling Harbour precinct.
While the exact nature is a closely guarded secret until opening night, TDC is central to several Vivid Sydney technical firsts including world’s first-ever multi-viewer augmented reality activation that combines tablet technology, developed by Huawei and Spinifex, to the large-format video projection by TDC at Customs House, giant multimedia projections at Garden of Light at Royal Botanic Garden Sydney in partnership with Ample Projects, and unprecedented interactive installation where the audience will have control over the video including Cadmans Cottage at IMPOSSIBLE VOYAGE, created by Propaganda Mill.
TDC will also deliver a technical first for Vivid Sydney with the Laser-Dragon Water-Theatre in Darling Harbour. This will see TDC project onto a water screen mounted on a 13-metre robotic arm that floats high above 56 fountains and 22 flame jets, deployed by Oracle Liquid.
At Eyes on the Harbour, visitors’ faces will also be captured and projected onto a water-theatre using Intel RealSense technology.
At Central Park, TDC will project Ample Project’s X-Factory onto the Heritage-listed Carlton and United Brewery building, telling a story about the shift to computational technologies, and sustainability.
Vivid Sydney creative director Ignatius Jones said, “We work closely with TDC to constantly break new boundaries in technology and to develop immersive experiences each year in the festival’s delivery of creativity and innovation. Vivid Sydney inspires, entertains and exemplifies the emerging technologies that are changing our world. It is a celebration that will blow away all who behold it.”
“All technical elements have been meticulously planned prior to the event. Only in Sydney will you be able to experience an event on this scale, size and technical complexity,” said TDC CEO Michael Hassett.
Vivid Sydney is the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas and runs over 23 nights from 27 May – 18 June. The event is owned, managed and produced by, Destination NSW, the State Government’s tourism and major events agency.
