The MTV European Music Awards 2009 took place in Berlin on the 5th November with a line up that featured among many others Beyoncé, Shakira and Jay-Z. Lumacoustics was asked to provide a custom digital interactive wall solution based on their YrWall product. YrWall typically allows users to create graffiti digitally using a modified spray can on a 3 metre wide screen, for MTV functionality was added to allow full interactive control of a Twitter-based application.

The interactive wall took centre stage on the Access All Areas backstage show presented by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz. As soon as Pete began creating art on the wall he wanted one in his home, commenting that it was “the most awesome thing ever!”. Pete then hosted guests including Katy Perry, Leona Lewis, Joss Stone, Back Street Boys, Green Day and Placebo asking them to use YrWall to sign their name or create some art.

The artwork was then automatically sent from the interactive wall to the MTV production office where it could be shown online or full screen during the live broadcast.As well as being able to create digital graffiti, the show’s host and guests were able to monitor Twitter activity about the European Music Awards on the digital wall using an interactive Twitter application. The spray can was used to click on images and words on the screen to bring up a real-time display of activity on Twitter. Again this was fully integrated with the show's production to enable seamless switching between the graffiti and Twitter applications.

Emily Macdowell, producer at MTV based in New York commented that “The interactive wall was a really exciting focal point for the guests and the cameras, the Lumacoustics team were great to work with”.

Lumacoustics helped create a Bar Mitzvah celebration to remember for one London boy.

Alongside live performances from JLS and Diversity, using three of our Lumaserve custom media servers we projected 12.6 million pixels of custom real-time, audio-reactive content over 240 square metres – the entire party venue. The whole system was fully integrated with the lighting system to allow DMX colour control of the visuals throughout the night.

The visual content varied from detailed scenes where the viewer was taken on a journey through the 3D world to ambient slow moving visuals. Each scene was designed to compliment sections of the evening from dinner through to DJ/VJ'd music videos spanning the virtual multi-screen environment.

All that plus YrWall with live t-shirt printing using the designs from the wall - quite a party!  

Bristol Festival asked Lumacoustics to create the 'World's Largest Interactive Graffiti Wall' on the side of the iconic Lloyds amphitheatre building on Bristol's harbourside.

Towering over the festival site, the wall showcased the talents of local graffiti artists as they painted on the standard 3.5 metre square YrWall. Their work was then projected in real time on a massive scale onto the 260 square metre site using two 1080p high definition projectors used side by side to reproduce the image on YrWall on the 26m x 10m space on the side of the Lloyds building.

Lumaserve was used to account for the distortion encountered from firing two separate projectors in two locations and at differing angles to create one seamless canvas, and that caused by the architectural features of the building itself. This software was also used to create and project a virtual 3D Police helicopter which flew around the side of the building. As the helicopter flew it highlighted the works of art being painted with its virtual searchlight.  

A firm favourite on the UK festival scene, Shambala is a non-commercial, ethical and family-friendly festival which aims to cultivate a mix of creativity, the unexpected and quality entertainment.

Lumacoustics was out in force at Shambala. First of all with the ever-popular YrWall, which was a perfect attraction for this family-orientated festival, with aspiring graffiti artists of all ages creating masterpieces all weekend. Secondly, our own VJ XDNitro provided real time visuals for live electro breaks band Subgiant using custom audio-reactive, midi-controlled software. Lastly, but by no means least, we teamed up with the Recursive-Function team in their incredible igloo style tent to use their specialist dome mapping software alongside Lumacoustics' own custom software to create a unique and immersive experience.

BoomTown Fair is a brand new festival from the organisers of the immensely successful ReCydrate the West Festival and billed as the 'most ridiculous, outrageous 3-day outing of the summer'.

Occupying a prominent spot in the centre of the chill out area, Lumacoustics, in conjunction with interactive installation masters Dystopik Technologies, built a massive 6.5 metre free-standing structure described by some as “a cross between a aircraft control tower and a giant lava lamp”. The tower was visible from across the entire site and drew people in day and night.As night fell the tower really came into its own as it was lit internally with 360 degree seamless mapped projections from six projectors.

The visual content was a dazzling mix of automated real-time generated organic swirls, ribbons and patterns using Lumacoustics' own custom Lumaserve software. Accompanying and complementing the visuals was a range of kinetic abstract sounds from an audio system located within the tower structure,  adding to the other-worldly nature of the installation and captivating onlookers throughout the event.

Smirnoff are running a series of parties around the world entitled 'Smirnoff Original Nights', each one has been radically different and pushed the envelope of experiential events. In July 2009 it was the turn of London. Matter at the 02 provided the venue with its incredible sound, lighting and projection system.

Joining the extensive side show action such as a tattoo parlour and fortune teller, Smirnoff allowed guests to draw their perfect night using Lumacoustics' YrWall digital graffiti wall. The wall was a hit throughout the night, with users not only able to upload their designs to Facebook but also Bluetooth their artwork to themselves or friends.
 

The biggest and best yet! A massive line up for Glastonbury 2009 from headliners Neil Young, Blur, Prodigy, Franz Ferdinand right through to ‘secret’ gigs from Lady GaGa and African Express.

Lumacoustics had a YrWall digital graffiti wall in Dance Village, which caught the attention of BBC3 and BBC2 with Lumacoustics' own Tom Hogan doing a quick interview while Inkie worked some magic. A second wall in Trash City kept the crowd entertained all weekend, even during Sunday nights downpour.

Our biggest and most exciting project however was the huge projection mapping in Shangri-La. The 'Village Green' was an area encased by 360 degree white stone walls, over 40 metres in diameter - that's 210 square metres! Our task was to subtly highlight the walls at night using 3D mapping. The project was in conjunction with Brighton Art, Lumacoustics planned and positioned six mighty projectors and spent four nights and five days building a virtual 3D model of the non-uniform space, and then testing the system. The content was created to highlight the shapes and hidden faces of the Shangri-La walls. projections went down a storm with the whole thing adding to the retro-futuristic, Blade Runner style feel.
 

The Royal Albert Hall, in conjunction with global style gurus Daydream Network, devised a racy, edgy and urban exhibition to celebrate 138 years of acts at the Hall. LOAD was a one day only exhibition showing off the new loading bay walls where a team of graffiti artists had painted a selection of key performances from the past 138 years.

Daydream asked Lumacoustics to provide some entertainment for guests by bringing along a YrWall digital graffiti wall. More than that, for the launch party Daydream and Royal Albert Hall wanted something a little special, we came up with some masked and mapped visuals showcasing the painting that had taken place and showing some of the acts from the Hall’s history. The projections and the wall went down amazingly with the clients and guests – the BBC even filmed a feature for BBC News channel. Watch it here.

Event agency GSP invited Lumacoustics along to the Secret Studio party at sleek venue Jasmine Studios to liven things up with some subtle ceiling projections and a YrWall. The mapped and masked visuals used four discreetly placed 6,000 lumen projectors to showcase some generative 3D tropical images, relaxing summer clouds and funky disco content.

Guests were amazed by the visuals which capped off an awesome set-up including food from The Recipe and cocktails by Bamboo. The digital graffiti wall was the talked about feature of the night and the leading luminaries from the event industry came up with their perfect tropical images.
 

Lumacoustics was massively pleased when XD Nitro was invited to Dissident down at Motion in Bristol on 2nd May. Motion is a great venue for showcasing large scale visuals, and the Dissident crew and fans received a full-on explosion of XD Nitro's latest work. A huge eighteen metre by two metre screen was created by the Lumacoustics team, three projectors and a host of control equipment completed the setup - all in under two hours.

Dissident delivered, the main room was treated to a dark, dark journey that included sets from Dom and Roland, Silent Witness and Sabre. Up to six simultaneous sources of video, 2D and real-time generative 3D content was cut, spliced and displayed through the soft-edged blended projector set up. The overall performance and effect matched the nights energy. A minimum 50 frames per second, using hardware accelerated custom software, every frame was colour calibrated, soft edge blended and geometry corrected. The whole visual system was controlled via midi-controllers. Add to that the generative audio-reactive elements and the end result: fierce.
 

The Oakley Design Brief, presented by Daydream Network, was a unique opportunity for the UK’s top young designers and artists to customise an exclusive limited edition pair or Oakley Hijinx™ sunglasses.

Lumacoustics had been invited to bring YrWall and install some visual wickedness to the help make, and what turned into, a mega party. The wall was not only an excuse to have lots of fun but also allowed the users to connect with the designers brief. This was made possible by a customised version of the wall with a 3m wide Hijinx™ outline being central on the screen. The interactive digital paint system only allowed painting within this outline and then the complete image could be emailed. The email address was entered by using the digital spray can to interact and type on the onscreen keyboard.

We also installed six projectors, three blended together and geometry corrected to give a large canvas around a corner and pillar of the main room. The other three where used in the bar area as single displays, one behind the brilliant live screen printers that are Hit & Run, another as you come down the stairs from the main room and the other geometry corrected on the far corner of the bar. In the main room we used sixteen different video sources. The video content was provided by Oakley and severed up using Lumacoustics custom software on two media servers.

With only a 16-hour set up time we still managed it with plenty of time remaining. The event was a great success and everyone was really happy with the results.
 

Sunshine, lovely setting, top acts, great ciders and a great crowd. What more can be said? Well...

Lumacoustics was asked to install a 130 degree curved projection screen around a chill out area inside the festival. The concept was for a weather-proofed, panoramic multi-projection setup. We used softedge blending across the projection area which proved to be very effective.

Despite heavy rain and strong winds on the Sunday of the festival the weather proofing methods really stood up to the test. Packing down the installation at the end of the event in the wind and rain wasn't much fun though!

Lumacoustics developed the software and contributed real-time 3D content for the Igloo Tent at Glastonbury 2008, a totally immersive 360-degree digital projection environment. This tent really did rock. We had so many really positive comments from people regarding the atmosphere inside. There really is nothing like it on the festival scene.

This is was Renegade's third party down at Clockwork and we have provided visuals each time. We installed a seamless, three metre wide projection area and it proved to be a great party with a great performance from Roni Size with Dynamite Mcing. With Doc Scott, Spor b2b Chris Renegade, Loxy, Vicious Circle and Noisia it made for a great night with lots of great music.
 

One of the leading indoor underground music events, BLOC weekend is three days of independent electronic music, in 2008 held at a holiday resort in Norfolk, UK.

Working with the French visual label, AntiVJ, we installed a visual installation in the massive main dance arena. We helped the AnitVJ crew realise their creative vision by installing four projectors that completely spanned each side of a group of net cubes hanging from the ceiling. The task was not easy considering the ceiling was made of plasterboard with hidden wooded beams, over 7m high and the projectors needed to be over 15m apart. This meant a lot of cabling, tricky ladder work, and custom mounts.

VJ Crustea and VJ Legoman had made custom content for the installation and the six multi-sized cubes looked amazing throughout the event.