ION Sky

Visitors and Singapore residents alike are flocking to the ION Sky multimedia show atop the tallest building on Orchard Road. Driven by disguise 4x4pro and 2x4pro media servers, the latest attraction on the city skyline offers a glimpse of the history and heritage of Singapore and Orchard Road when the area was little more than fruit and nutmeg plantations.

The immersive video projections begin during the elevator ride to Level 55 of ION Sky. Trees climb up the elevator walls blossoming as visitors exit onto a ramp leading to the Level 56 observation deck. Seasonal interactive projections map the floor and walls of the ramp: the current spring/summer theme features flowers and butterflies. The observation deck window panels are covered with roller blinds onto which a four-minute historical show commissioned by Singaporean singer/songwriter Dick Lee is projected.  At the conclusion of the show the blinds lift to reveal the stunning 21st century panorama of the city.

Malcom Fooh, the disguise Operator from Acoustic & Lighting System, which provides technical support to the show, uses a disguise 4x4pro with Quad-DVI cards as the master media server and a disguise 2x4pro to drive the extensive video projections. “disguise was chosen for its ability to handle 20 Sony video projectors with a minimal number of servers,” he says. “disguise also provides seamless integration with the Crestron master show control system.”

During prepro the media servers allowed the content development team at VividThree Production to have a visual reference before the actual start of the set up, Malcolm explains. “The simulation allowed the team to see how their content looked and to determine the canvas size. Dick Lee provided ideas and the storyboard, and VividThree made them a reality.”

The disguise Multi Transports feature enabled the team to have three different computer inputs displayed at three locations independently with Crestron control via Telnet. “Telnet was very useful as it permitted third-party applications or control software to trigger the disguise timeline,” says Malcolm.

He also cites disguise’s QuickCal feature for fast projector calibration. “Calibration and set up time was quick as we had planned and executed everything correctly.”

He adds that, “support from disguise quickly resolved any issues that appeared and everything is working well.”