Optoma
| Industry Arts |
| Region St Ives, Cornwall, UK |
|
Type of Solution Two Optoma short throw projectors |
|
Installation Company AV3 |
| www.av3.co.uk |
| AV3 is a visual production company specialising in video solutions for the entertainment industries. |
“With such a short install period (45 mins) there was no time to suspend a projector above the audience. The short throw lens of the GT1080 meant we could site the projectors as close to the gallery wall as possible without any additional install issues while still producing a very large HD image. The image size and quality was amazing from such a small unit! They’re seriously impressive for a domestic gaming projector.”
Oliver Sutherland, Artist
“I wanted to achieve a large scale image that would fill the whole of the gallery wall, without using any intrusive and distracting equipment. The projector supplied by Optoma produced an image with great clarity and depth of colour giving a truthful image quality and brightness."
Bryony Gillard, Artist
“I have used Optoma projectors before and know they are reliable – which is essential for this project. We chose the GT1080 because it produces a huge, great quality image from a very short distance away from the screen or wall.”
Tom Harding, AV3
Optoma brings California to Tate St Ives
Challenge:
Tate St Ives in Cornwall needed two high resolution short throw projectors with crystal clear picture quality for video performances in its famous gallery.
Solution:
Visual production company, AV3, installed two Optoma GT1080 projectors to project the straight onto the gallery walls including a live-streamed performance from the Californian coast.
Results:
Being small, white and quiet, the GT1080s were a perfect fit for the gallery. The short throw lens allowed the projectors to be sited close to the gallery wall yet still produced a huge high resolution image.
The Challenge
The famous art gallery, Tate St Ives in Cornwall, hosted performances by Bryony Gillard and Oliver Sutherland as part of its Artists Programme and needed two high resolution short throw projectors with crystal clear picture quality.
They had to be compatible to project a live performance from the US that would be streamed to the gallery for the evening event. And they also needed to be fairly small and unobtrusive in the gallery.
The gallery would have a large amount of ambient light during the performance and the image size would be around 6m x 4m - so the projectors needed to be bright with good contrast.
Bryony and Oliver’s C~C cross-disciplinary project presented performances, artworks, research material and music from a number of contributors including artists, theorists and musicians. C~C explored the coincidental, tangential, formal and informal similarities and links between the Cornish Coast and Pacific Coast (California) through art.
The Solution
Visual production company, AV3, installed two Optoma GT1080 projectors to project the performances straight onto the gallery walls.
This small but powerful projector, with built-in speakers, can give a super-sized 100-inch picture on a screen or wall from just over a metre away. Full 3D and full HD, it produces bright vivid colours due to its 2,800-lumen brightness.
Throughout the evening, a live-streamed performance from the Californian coast was projected in the gallery via the HDMI input from the artists’ laptop through Skype. This showed artist Chris Dyson driving the Pacific highway, from Hollywood Boulevard to Venice Beach, drawing on conversations with cultural theorist Norman Klein. This used the audio output to connect to an external sound system.
The GT1080, installed in Gallery 5, showed Bryony’s video Un Waive Edge Ground, connected via HDMI from a media player. This explored the potential for visual poetry to exist away from the space of the page.
Two HDMI inputs are a huge benefit of the GT1080 as they allow multiple sources, such as games consoles, Blu-ray players or digital television set top boxes, to be simultaneously connected - making switching between these literally the push of a button. It can even be turned it into a smart display by connecting a smartphone or tablet with a single cable using MHL to play games, stream videos and share photos on the big screen.
The GT1080 comes complete with a built-in speaker that delivers powerful 10W audio, with exceptional sound quality. Despite the small dimensions of the projector, the level of audio created will easily fill a living space. An audio output is also included, enabling connection to external sound systems.
The GT1080 can display true 3D content from almost any 3D source, including 3D Blu-ray players, 3D broadcasting and the latest generation games consoles. Support for 144Hz rapid refresh rate provides ultra-smooth flicker free images.
The Results
Being small, white and quiet, the projectors were a perfect fit for the gallery.
Oliver Sutherland said: “With such a short install period (45 mins) there was no time to suspend a projector above the audience. The short throw lens of the GT1080 meant we could site the projectors as close to the gallery wall as possible without any additional install issues while still producing a very large HD image. The image size and quality was amazing from such a small unit! They’re seriously impressive for a domestic gaming projector.”
Bryony Gillard said: “I wanted to achieve a large scale image that would fill the whole of the gallery wall, without using any intrusive and distracting equipment. The projector supplied by Optoma produced an image with great clarity and depth of colour giving a truthful image quality and brightness.’
Tom Harding from AV3 said: “I have used Optoma projectors before and know they are reliable – which is essential for this project. We chose the GT1080 because it produces a huge, great quality image from a very short distance away from the screen or wall.”
Tate St Ives’ Artists Programme supports the development of diverse artistic practices, providing a productive environment that values experimentation and risk, discussion and debate.
Bryony Gillard works across a wide range of media including writing, performance, installation and music. She is currently undertaking Postgraduate study at the Dutch Art Institute, Netherlands.
Oliver Sutherland uses new technologies to examine the languages of digital culture and the materiality of digital processes. He is currently a PhD candidate within Digital Games, as part of the 3D3 Consortium.