Christie Digital Japan Lights up Tokyo Sky Tree East Tower for NHK Documentary with Projection Mapping

Christie Digital Systems Japan in co-operation with NHK Enterprises Ltd., WOW, and Sigma A&V and Rental Corporation, played a key role in creating Sunday's NHK documentary broadcast See Everything That Makes Tokyo Sky Tree Special! in advance of the Tokyo Sky Tree's official public opening on May 22, 2012.

Christie's expertise in projection mapping was leveraged during the shooting of the documentary to deploy and operate 27 Christie Roadie HD+35K DLP projectors to project images created by NHK onto a 4,500-sq. m. area on the East Tower, over a distance of up to 130m. Set on the rooftop of the eighth floor of the Tokyo Sky Town shopping mall, each projector is capable of 35,000 lumens output.

"As a professional-use projector manufacturer, it is an honor to provide technical cooperation for projection mapping in a locale that is as large in scale and as topical as the Tokyo Sky Tree," said Mamoru Hanzawa, general manager, Christie Digital Systems Japan. "Projection mapping allows large numbers of people to share the excitement of seeing an image projection that, although far larger in scale than conventional uses, requires no screen setup and takedown, and does not interfere with the building or other object on which it is projected."

Primitive forms of projection mapping have been around for more than a decade. Originally, projection mapping was used to project static images onto buildings and exterior structures using slide-projector setups and film to create lighting effects. Mapping to these surfaces was difficult since the designers were required to use technology that used camera obscura-type manipulations. The light sources were often not bright enough, so the resulting images could not been seen very well.

To eliminate these problems, Christie developed advanced technologies that help enable today's complex and stunning mapping displays to be created. Technologies like Christie Twist and Christie AutoStack allow the projected images to be warped and edge-blended into irregular shapes and surfaces the company says, as well as enable the set up and maintenance to be accomplished more accurately and quickly using cameras, projectors, and software.

"Projection mapping goes further than just providing content for television programs and for displays at events. It is a projection method with enormous and yet to be fully realized potential," said Hanzawa.

"Furthermore, in the age of the personal computer, the smart phone, and the tablet, where each individual has come to enjoy watching still and moving images on his or her small device alone, visual experiences able to be shared by large numbers of people at once are, I believe, of great significance and value," continued Hanzawa.

"Projectors are used not only in the entertainment sector, such as with image projection of this type here and movies, and the like. They are also used in a wide range of other fields such as pharmaceuticals, medicine, and for academic and technical research. It will be greatly satisfying if the application of projectors in this project can serve to show as many people as possible the enormous possibilities they have for image projection in general."