34 REP ORT: T H EAT RES & CONCERT H ALLS
NAT ION AL T H E AT R E COMPANY: DISGUISE LOCATION: LONDON, UK
Situated on the South Bank of the Thames in London, the National Theatre is one of the UK’s most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues. It features three theatres, a learning centre, restaurants, a riverside bar and a bookshop. The National Theatre presents up to 25 new shows every year, as well as appearing in its own theatres, these productions often play in the West End and tour around the country, as well as on Broadway in New York and around the world. Productions are also broadcast to over 2,000 cinemas worldwide through National Theatre Live or streamed free to UK schools. The National Theatre continually innovates in service to its audience and is not afraid to embrace new technology. It was the first theatre to broadcast a live 4K production to cinemas, it has installed a fully integrated and wireless communications system across
the whole facility, and operates a dedicated Immersive Storytelling Studio to explore ways to tell stories using emerging digital technologies. In keeping with this forward-thinking ethos, it recently adopted the disguise OmniCal camera-based projector calibration engine to aid complex production design. “We use projections on stage in numerous ways to enhance productions, from supplementary scenic design through to narratively mapped visual objects and video walls. Sometimes this will present realistic backdrops and images, sometimes the projections will interact with a performance, and at other times it will narratively lead the direction onstage,” said Dominic Bilkey, Head of Sound and Video, National Theatre. “However, we had been finding it increasingly difficult to use traditional 2D media server projection to map onto 3D surfaces www.mondodr.com
and complex shapes. We needed to find a solution that would allow us to be more accurate with the projection surfaces whilst achieving a better results, in less time.” Dominic’s team began looking at the available options on the market and narrowed their research to look at 3D workflows, so that mapping was an integral part of the programming rather than just a way of lining up. “As a repertory theatre that presents different shows with short or sporadic runs, we are continually installing sets and equipment for a performance and then quickly removing everything to facilitate the next show - often twice in a week. The ability to perform a video lineup quickly was therefore crucial in order to turn shows around fast, as we need to be able to fully rehearse the projection cues in conjunction with lighting prior to a performance,” said Dominic. “The disguise
