Four days, 21 installations, and an array of historic facades: Panasonic provided the projection technology for the Signal Festival in Prague, bringing Hive players along for the first time.
Projection Mapping: Panasonic brings Hive Players to Prague
For the second year in a row, Panasonic served as the projection partner for the Signal Festival in Prague. Running from 15 to 18 October for its 14th edition, the festival featured 21 installations. New additions included the PT-RQ45 4K laser projector and Beeblade Pluto media players. These media players are manufactured by Hive Media Control, a British media player and control system specialist, which Panasonic acquired in May.
The PT-RQ45 projectors displayed images on the facade of the Archdiocesan Seminary in the Dejvice district. This historic location was another first-time inclusion for the festival. Among the highlights shown at this site was “Missing Interval” by German artist Felix Frank. According to Panasonic, the 3-chip DLP laser projector delivers 42,000 lumens and has a resolution of 3,840 × 2,400 pixels. Although it is brighter, it has nearly the same dimensions as the PT-RQ35 series.
Players housed inside projectors
The Hive players are housed directly inside the projector rather than in a separate 19-inch rack, as with many standard media players. Seven Beeblade Pluto players supplied content to three installations while the Beesync software synchronized playback across multiple projectors. “Both technologies are new to our festival, but our experience with Panasonic has given us the confidence to use them in front of a live audience,” says Julius Štefan of the Signal Festival.