The Teatro Real takes its sets to a new dimension with Christie's projectors

The high definition images provided by the Roadster HD20K-J projectors have had a starring role in the opera Fidelio, that has been represented for one month, creating spectacular 3D effects through a mixture of audiovisual and reality that immerses the viewer in the work itself.

Audiovisual technology has entered with force in the scenographic environment, displacing the great scenic elements that previously played a key role in the opera. This is how the Royal Theatre of Madrid, known for its demand in the use of the most innovative technologies, that this year has acquired three projectors Christie Roadster HD20K-J to use in the productions that are represented in their spaces.

The Teatro Real is the center of madrid's opera and currently one of the most important in the world, welcoming on stage the best lyrical and scenic artists of the moment. It was opened in 1850 and offers a 180 opera and ballet performances by season.

"Historically, the opera has been characterized by having productions with great corporeal decorations and great illuminations. It was truly magnificent the large volume of materials that moved in the scenery. But today, with the irruption of the audiovisual media, we are seeing that every day more these sets have become virtual. That is to say that with the image we get almost the same corporeal effect that before came in nine trucks", comments Fernando Valiente, Head of Audiovisuals of the Teatro Real.

"This made us think that it would be very positive to make an investment in high-performance projectors to be able to cover the greater demand for audiovisuals that we know will come in the future and that will allow us to give a higher quality service to all productions", continues to explain F. Brave.

To this end,, the Teatro Real convened three of the main brands in the sector inviting them to perform demonstrations of their equipment in the range of the 20.000 Lumens. "The test was done in the theater itself with the same signs and light conditions for everyone, and Christie's proved to be the most reliable teams, robust and versatile", remembers Juan José Pérez, Project Consultant Charmex, Christie's partner who was in charge of the operation through the distributor Cast.

"The Christie projectors were the ones that had the most muscle and showed a lot of reliability and a great robustness of operation, with the simplest and easiest to handle software and with a tight volume, which was very important because of the small size of our cabin", corroborates Fernando Valiente.

The Theatre acquired three Christie Roadster HD20K-J, a 3DLP technology projector, HD 1920 resolution×1080 and 20.000 Lumens. The equipment has been used in different functions throughout the year, but they just had a starring role in the opera Fidelio (the only one composed by Beethoven), which was performed at the theatre for almost a month.

It is a production from the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (Opera theatre of Valencia) that takes place in a prison on the outskirts of Seville and that has a complex scenic conception, loaded with symbolism, stripped of ornamental scenic elements and in which audiovisual support is decisive to reinforce different aspects of a plot that encloses in itself several plots.

Projections in high definition are one of the strong points of this production, creating spectacular 3D effects through a mixture of audiovisual and reality that immerses the viewer in the work itself.

To make this possible, two simultaneous projections of animations were made on the stage with 4 Christie Roadster HD20K-J. The theater rented the fourth projector to the company Elenco. Two of the projectors, arranged in dual in a projection booth at a shooting distance of 25 metre, performed a frontal projection constantly on a semi-transparent tul.

The other two Roadster, also mounted in dual in a carra installed behind the stage, they made backprojection on four screens located at different levels, at a shooting distance between 13 and 22 metre.

This double projection created a corporeal scenography superimposing images, a game between the physical and the virtual that gave a great depth to the stage and thus achieved the three-dimensional effect.

The aspect ratio was 16:9 and the image was cropped according to the screen sizes. The largest was 17×9,30 meters and the smallest of ones 16 meters wide. The resolution used was HD 1080i.

"The truth is that even us, that we have a lot of experience with stagings using videos, we have been impressed by how well achieved the 3D effect is achieved with the combination of the rear and front projections. In fact, there is a magical moment in which different elements of the scenery virtually leave the stage towards the audience causing the viewer to back in the armchair, something really amazing", adds Valiente.

ILS, intelligent lens system

Fidelio's rear projection highlights the roadster's intelligent lens system, the ILS, that automatically adjusts images to the screen size and maintains alignment in applications with movable screens of various aspect ratios.

"The ILS allowed us to automatically adjust the focus and zoom on each of the four screens in the rear projection.. This is very important when you work in dual because changing the projection surface loses the settings and, if you don't have the ILS, you have to make the adjustments manually, with all the complications that this entails", says the head of Audiovisuals of the Teatro Real.

The ILS of Christie's projectors solved the problem that arose in other theaters where the play was previously performed, that they had to physically move the carra with the projectors every time there was a change of screen.

To manage projections of Fidelio, the Teatro Real used the Watchout system of Dataton. Video signals were sent to projectors using fiber optic cables. An Edid emulator was also used Extron to automatically manage the communication protocol between connected devices, as well as a converter Aja from DVI to HDSDI, which is the internal transport signal in the theater.

It has been a while since christie projectors are working in the theater and the feelings of its Audiovisual Department can not be better. "The truth is that we are having a very positive experience with the teams, we have been delighted with the service provided by Christie and Charmex and we are confident that in the future we can expand our projector park with Christie", concludes Fernando Valiente.

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