This March we finished up our latest installation at the the new LED Bar Lounge at the Caprice in Vancouver. The room as several different LED features: custom colour-matching pendants, entrance archways, bar lighting, and of course the 2900 pixel LED ceiling above the dancefloor. All the LED lighting is DMX controlled, by two separate systems. Madrix controls the LED ceiling, the pendants and smaller features around the dancefloor, while the architectural lighting system controls the bars, tables, and the archways.

Check out the photos!

We designed and built fully self contained “Diamond Photo Attache” to allow the client to seamlessly shoot videos of the diamonds which are automatically uploaded the web masters’ servers for them to incorporate into the database. Additional features included auto naming the the diamonds with drop downs to select their carat value, shape, colour and lot numbers.

The Diamond Photo Attache in its case. Super tough, you could drive over it with a truck!

First layer: 13″ macbook pro

Bottom layer: the camera unit.

Everything out of the case: camera unit on left, macbook pro on right, cables and power supplies on the top

Close up showing the high resolution firewire camera in its stored orientation. Sparkle light to the right of the camera.

Fire up the custom application to control the unit. All hardware, motor and lighting is controlled by the software.

All lights on, with gem mounted on turntable.

Side by side show of the whole system.

Gem on the turntable.

Close up of the software: buttons to control lighting and motor and to capture photos or video. When in video mode, the unit receives feedback from the motor and captures exactly one rotation, so minimal further editing of the videos is required.

Urban Visuals was asked to create an art piece that ‘maps’ images to the trees using projection. We built custom software that could see audience members and used their position to generate the effects that we projected onto the trees. We also built additional iPhone control software that allowed us to tweak the display from anywhere on site.

Here are some pictures (click on the photos to zoom in):

In early February 2011, Urban Visuals mounted two installations for Illuminate Yaletown.  Billed as an “Exploration of  Art and Light,” Illuminate Yaletown is an annual lighting festival that takes place in Vancouver’s historic warehouse district, Yaletown, with local and international participants.

Our first installation, Fiction Facades, won second place in the festival. It consisted of  a huge exterior building projection, that spanned the entire 100 foot width of the heritage Yaletown Building. Using custom live mapping software, we were able to create animations and effects that react to the placement of the windows. Objects would fall and bounce around the building facade and make sounds as they bounced off certain objects.

Thanks to AVW/Telav for so graciously  providing the projectors for the installation.

Our second installation, Data Queue, utilized custom LED panels that react and respond to peoples’ movement in and around the installation.

Here is a selection of images of our installations garnered from the Flickr Illuminate Yaletown Photo Contest.

The installation was controlled by a touch screen PC which communicated via Processing (processing.org) and custom built hardware to interface with the 800 wires exiting the base of the model. It was programmed to illuminate an individual suite, a whole floor, and whole sections of the building — the building is divided into three product offerings.

To be completed in 2011.

This exhibit blends standard hands on game play with a digital component that allows for the game to be adjusted and updated with simple software changes. The software and media driven interface will allow us the ability to create a completely different game in the future, with minimal hardware changes.

The game was written using the Processing framework for Java. The exhibit uses a number of custom interface elements, including 14 Digitalview media players controlled by RS-232, 15 practically indestructible buttons to start the game and “turn off” appliances, and a custom acrylic LED column with 5 channels of RGB LEDs, all controlled by a Mac mini. Additionally, the unit can re controlled remotely and all system variables and timers can be configured over a web interface.

The 40 metre wide Olympic Rings in Vancouver during the 2010 winter Olympics were seen by millions of viewers as a backdrop to the accredited television media.

Urban Visuals was commissioned to create a number of animated sequences to play on the rings during special events and when winning medals were achieved by Canadian athletes.

We used Processing to create the animated sequences and to output them in the proprietary xml format the that lights required.

Watch the official unveiling of the rings, presented by the Premier of BC below:

It was cool to be in the old Storeum space that is now W2. It shows great potential as a new event venue for Vancouver. Check them out for more info. (creativetechnology.org)

Last weekend we worked with Epic Lighting to create a amazing stage show with sound responsive visuals designed for the annual IMF show at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. We combined pre produced visuals with pixel accurate sound responsive animations.

Using the Martin LC LED wall system, we had a 16m x 7m screen with nearly 50,000 LEDs. After a quick re alignment of the LED pixel map we were off. The early part of the evening consisted of combining information with generative animations that were programmed in advance. We gradually altered to look and feel of the stage as the show progressed through a record 10 hour performance. At its most complex, the show featured blends of pre produced visuals and real time animation.

Here are a few clips from the audience perspective shot by attendees, excuse the camera work, they must have been excited.