Planet Desert, the new film and book by acclaimed photographer and full-time explorer Michael Martin, has recently been promoted using 12 AV Stumpfl VarioClip screens. The screens were set-up in more than 150 venues across Germany and Europe and used to share Michael’s passion for desert landscapes and inspire audiences to pick up his new book and watch the film.
A tour such as Planet Desert is not only an artistic, but a logistical challenge as well. Martin is travelling across Europe on an almost daily basis. The presentation technology he uses needs to meet the highest standards. All the components have to be solid and robust, as well as practical. Looking for the best projection screen system was far from easy, due to requirements that seemed contradictory at first. How can one cover multiple formats and sizes up to a total picture width of 14m and have the right kind of screen for each different venue.
At the same time, the transport size had to be kept as compact as possible, in order to fit into a standard size delivery van. The combined weight was another factor that had to be taken into consideration.
Transporting more than a dozen individual standard screens with different sizes each was not an option. The AV Stumpfl VarioClip system was the eventual solution to all these problems.
A frame with standard parts and added extension parts can be fitted with different types of screen surfaces. Michael made the conscious decision to base his tour around two main formats: 3:2 and the panoramic format 2:1.
At each new location, Martin decides on site which final format and which size is going to be the most appropriate to ensure the best possible visual effect for the audience.
The screen sizes for the two formats were chosen in a way so that the required extension parts were reduced to a minimum.
During the tour Michael notes: “I decided to only use the best and most powerful technology available for this multivision presentation. It all begins with a 20,000 ANSI Lumen Panasonic Panasonic PT-DZ21 projector with a highly detailed WUXGA resolution that manages to let even my biggest 14m wide screen shine brightly. The projector receives the content via a high performance computer running AV Stumpfl’s Wings Platinum, which allows for the creation of the image and sound synthesis.
“When it came to choosing the projection screens, I followed a new approach. My guiding principle was to be able to set up the largest screen possible in each case. Because of the great architectural differences between auditoriums, the screen sizes had to be different as well. There are venues with low ceilings that are nevertheless wide, as well as those with high ceilings but a rather narrow auditoriums. A tour with 150 show dates means that we have to deal with 150 different venue sizes. Because of this, we take up to twelve different projection screens with us. This way we can ensure our being able to always set up the largest screen possible. Some venues will require our using a classical 3:2 ratio for our screens, in case of narrow ceilings we will use a more panoramic 2:1. Using the mobile VarioClip projection screen system, we were able to perfectly fulfil our task.”