One of the world’s most famous music and arts festival, Glastonbury, could very well have scared any arachnophobes in its audience this year. CPL (Central Presentations Ltd.) supplied projection to live performance art group Arcadia’s giant recycled metal spider, from which the impressive ‘Metamorphosis’ show was performed. The UK-based rental specialist also supplied a lighting and rigging package which was utilized across the lively Shangri-La late night area.
A third area Glastonbury task for CPL: delivering projection to the movie theater at Williams Green, working with The Live Firm which screened Supersonic, a British music documentary directed by Matt Whitecross detailing the formative years of Oasis and the height of their success in the 1990s. CPL’s Richard Burrow was on site to oversee operations and collaborate with the various technical crews involved in running these different areas on the creative edge of the festival.
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The Tech Behind Arcadia’s Glastonbury Giant Spider
The current projection system for Arcadia’s giant spider was originally designed by CPL for the launch of the ‘Metamorphosis’ sequence first shown in 2015 comprising six Panasonic PT-DZ 21K projectors, each beaming onto the front and back of each of the three spider legs.
Motion graphics – created by Tom Wall from blinkinlab — were mapped precisely on to the legs using a media server and the Metamorphosis show cues are all triggered by time code generated by the overall show control system.
The projectors were positioned in weather-proof hides on six platforms placed around the Arcadia arena, approximately 40 metres away from the 12-metre high spider structure which is constructed from industrial waste, so they had a serious throw distance.
CPL used six Connex two-way fibre DVI/RJ45 fibre optic converter transmission systems which enabled both the data carrying the content to the machines and the projector control signals including on/off, colour settings, contrast, geometry control and other monitoring and feedback related to projector health, to run down the same cable. This is a robust solution designed for live events that saves time and reduces the need for unnecessary and unwieldy cabling.
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Metamorphosis is one of the most popular Glastonbury attractions since it launched two years ago. This year, the show pulled record audiences of around 50,000 to witness the high energy narrative and see the forces of good and evil battle, complete with new age abductions, space age teleportation, dramatic transformations and general craziness.
The show started at 11 p.m. and delivered 30 minutes of imaginative ‘shock & awe’, followed by a DJ line up for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the event.
