Barco projectors infuse poetic charm into Yangzhou Slender West Lake

The Slender West Lake Scenic Area is located in the urban area of Yangzhou, a famous historical and cultural city, with an area of 2,500,000m², and is an important part of the World Heritage Grand Canal. Two-thirds of the Moon Shed Memories in Yangzhou is the Tang Dynasty poetry-themed night tour designed to strengthen the dissemination of Yangzhou's unique culture, but also enhances visitors' in-depth understanding and perception of the national quintessence of the Tang Dynasty poetry.

Under the sculpting of nineteen Barco projectors, ten thematic scenes are vividly staged in a 3,5-kilometer immersive tour, displaying the flourishing and prosperous age of the Tang Dynasty. The night tour line guided by poetry connects four core sections of projection mapping paintings, interactive scene experiences, a float parade, and a night market of thousands of lanterns.

Challenge

The Slender West Lake night tour project is built on the lake, which not only faces the challenge of the harsh outdoor environment with humidity and temperature differences but also has the difficulty of limited equipment installation space. As a result, the projectors should have a small enough size and be able to achieve flexible adjustment in the confined space to ensure the accuracy of the projection angle.

The main projection points of the project included vase-shaped white towers, vigorously curved branches, and bridge walls with various structures. Unlike projection on a smooth wall, the complex and uneven projection surfaces are challenging to image and have severe optical loss. Especially for the projection on the bridge wall, it requires the projector's light beam to cross the wide lake and ensure consistency in the image's detailed presentation and color restoration over the long distance and through the water mists of the lake surface.

Solution

To preserve the beauty of the Slender West Lake and to incorporate the elements of Tang Dynasty poetry throughout the night tour, achieving the ultimate projection mapping effect where poetry and scenery are integrated, the LIGHTING Digital Creative Team has reached a high-quality cooperation with the visual and imaging expert Barco.

Barco projectors rely on advanced Barco Pulse image processing technology, high-contrast optical engine, and constant light output technology to ensure outstanding brightness, precision, and color consistency. And thanks to our proprietary Single-Step Processing (SSP) technology, image geometry correction, scaling, and 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) processing can be done in just one step, which enables clearer images, lower latency and faster response and switching. The Barco installation team's extensive outdoor installation experience helped the design teams to unleash their creativity and complete artistic presentation in challenging installation environments. Meanwhile, the modular design of Barco projectors allows for rapid on-site maintenance, ensuring long-term and stable operation in harsh outdoor operating environments.

Results

Barco's customized visualization solution for Slender West Lake, with three UDM-4K22, five UDM-W19, and eleven smaller laser phosphor projectors in the range of 10,000 lumens, can lock the brightness level and resolution according to specific usage requirements. And on various canvases such as the bridge wall with various structures and the vase-shaped white towers, the rich scenes carefully polished by the team are genuinely restored, with 4K ultra-high-definition resolution to achieve strong color saturation and detail sculpting, infusing the poetic charm into the night of the Slender West Lake.

Making full use of modern sound and light to beautify its presence, enhance its charm, and cast its soul is the best way to respect, utilize and preserve traditional culture, and it is also an essential mission for visual art workers. As a global expert in visual imaging, Barco will continue to devote itself to the presentation of visual arts and renew the immortal chapter of traditional culture with projection mapping.