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MillimeterBeautiful Balloons
May 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Debra Kaufman
 Creative Technology built this balloon out of rear-projection fabric, placed it inside a second balloon, and inside that, operated a complex projection system for the Sony PlayStation launch. |
Balloons can make for a stunning projection surface, but they can be a challenge to work with, as Creative Technology found out when creating a display to introduce the Sony PlayStation at the 2001 E3 video game convention in Los Angeles. To pull off the display, Creative Technology had to create a complex balloon that allowed the projection of game footage in 360 degrees, via five seamless bands of video game footage.
First, the crew built a balloon 28ft. in diameter made of rear-projection fabric. That balloon was placed within a second transparent balloon made of plastic, with an 18in. gap between the two surfaces. Four fans kept the two balloons inflated, while a custom projection and lighting system was placed inside the inner balloon. That system consisted of a five-sided tower with five levels, housing five Digital Projection 15SX DLP projectors (heat from the projector lamps was vented out of the balloons), each with a .8 lens that accommodated the short throw distance, and 24 Vari-Lite fixtures, along with tri-color lasers. With the inside of the balloon divided into five segments, each projector filled a segment, which overlapped to produce a seamless image.
Working closely with Creative Technology, Shout Creative, based in San Mateo, Calif., produced the video in 4:3 aspect ratio, relying on existing PlayStation game footage and unreleased game images from future PlayStation projects.
“Shout Creative needed to work with us on how the video was laid down in safe areas, allowing us room to manipulate it,” explains Stephen Gray, Creative Technology's general manager. “It was very difficult because a balloon shrinks and increases in size as the air changes temperature.”
Because the game footage could not be distorted in any way, Creative Technology used an Abekas DVEous Digital Effects system on the images prior to projecting them. The system allowed the crew to shrink the images and correct for skew, while avoiding stretching the aspect ratio, distorting characters, or cutting off titles, prior to the event. The images were then burned to a Fast Forward Omega hard drive that played them in a loop during the show.
But even after the image creation problems were solved, there was one prominent, unanticipated issue that arose.
“We vented the heat from the projector lamps outside the balloon, but there was no way to vent the 24 Vari-Lites,” says Gray. “We didn't realize how hot it was going to get inside the balloon, and it got up to 140 degrees.”
The day before the show, the team experienced a balloon failure due to heat stress. A spare inner balloon was swapped out, but it was clear that the crew had to figure out a way to bring the temperature down. They came up with a system to pump liquid nitrogen from the parking lot at the convention center through a specially constructed, 12-cylinder manifold and additional piping into the center of the balloon, where a showerhead device slowly released liquid nitrogen into the balloon to stabilize the temperature at 75 degrees.
To keep the balloon cool all day long translated to lots of liquid nitrogen — 140,000 cubic feet a day, to be exact. That required twelve 7ft. tall cylinders that were replaced three times a day. To pull that feat off, Creative Technology worked closely with officials from the Los Angeles Convention Center and the show's organizer, Pinnacle Exhibits, to allow storage of the liquid nitrogen, something that required careful monitoring to meet health and safety standards.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.