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Softedge setup for mutlitple distances

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:53 pm
by Jan Huewel
A common requirement in theatrical environment can be that a single set of projector is needed to cover multiple screen surfaces at different distances to the projectors.

In the case I recently faced two projectors were covering the procenium arch of a stage the had 4 suspended moving screens.

As the four screens were on two tracks, the distance between the tracks was about 50cm equal to ~ 2 feet

Image

As you can see in the above drawing once the softedge offsets are setup for the front screen, track1, the screen on track 2 will look wrong as the offset area is wider due to the larger projection field.

In this case the only good solution would be to use either 2x Media Servers or 2x Media Players each with single output rendering, one for each projector and reserve specific layers for the individual tracks / relating to different distances to the projectors.

While in this example you could use layer 1 on both system to project on screen 1 track 1, the softedge offsets would be setup with the cameras to match this screen when in the middle of the blend zone.

Once this is done, move Screen 1 off stage and bring in Screen 2 in the softedge zone and dial in layer 2 on both systems.

Since the Screen 2 is further away from the projector the size of the projection is larger and therefore the offsets of the front screen can not be applied to Screen 2.

An easy way to fix this now is by offsetting the X Position of Layer 2 on Server 2 to the left to match the Layer 2 of Server 1.

This way both Screens can be brought on and off stage simultaneously without interfering with each other.

Another more timeconsuming approach could also be programming individual Camera offsets for each scene, but this only works if the two screens are never in the softedge zone at the same time.