http://www.mixmeetings.com AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018 MIX 51
Event Gala Awards held in New Orleans. The win was for a fully
immersive undersea themed event that the company produced for
Clubs NSW held at the Gold Coast Convention Centre in 2016.
“Winning the 2018 International Special Event Gala Award for
Best New Product/Technology is such a gratifying feeling,” Brown
says. “The research and development to produce our modular
product line and then adapt the technologies of augmented
projection and mapping on to them in a corporate event space
was an extremely challenging but rewarding process.
“It is a process that could not have been possible without
an extremely trusting long-time client who, in 2015, allowed us
the full creative licence to explore and experiment with something
she never fully comprehended until she saw it live at the
final rehearsals.
“The Gold Coast Convention Centre also played a major part
in the successful win by actively joining us in a real desire to see
this concept come to life, by lowering existing access and pricing
barriers to make it a truly inclusive creative process.”
Brown also praised the “smaller, passionate players” that
supplied lighting, moulding and other expertise. These companies
included Ikonix, Pixe Line and Forum.
“We are honoured to have been the recipient of this prestigious
international award, but want it known that it was only achieved by
partnering with the amazing flexibility of the venue, commitment of
our client and creative talents of our external technical partners to
innovate and strive for something different than the same old
ho-hum our Australian industry struggles with every day.”
The win in the US comes shortly after the company’s modular
panel product line was launched in Denver, Colorado, under the
name Modular Backdrops USA. lstandard drapery or labour-intensive stage sets.
Thomas Brown, managing director of Modular Backdrops
Australia, says the interlocking 3D panels allow the wall to be
adapted to any venue. The Stealth Wall, for example, forms the
ideal canvas for a variety of lighting and augmented reality 3D
projection mapping for corporate events.
“Stunning 3D visual animations as seen on outdoor projection
mapping projects and festivals, such as Sydney’s Vivid, can be
achieved at corporate conference or gala awards,” Brown says.
“The matte white finish of each ABS plastic panel is perfect to
reflect and absorb lighting or projection blending, and has been
meticulously measured and 3D scanned so that each panel is
digitally replicated to become the ideal canvas for true spatial
augmented reality 3D projection mapping.”
Brown says 3D projection mapping in the corporate market
for a conference, awards dinner or themed event is only slightly
more complicated to implement than commonly used
wide-format projection screens and large format projection
blends. A wireframe of the wall mapping space provided by
Backdrops Fantastic Australia makes the finishing touches of
alignment easier.
“Backdrops Fantastic Australia not only provides the digital files
for clients to produce their own 3D animations, but has internal
and external resources to produce custom content or re-use off-
the-shelf animated content,” he says.
“A variety of entertaining projection mapped content has been
produced, such as giant sharks bursting through the wall and
Olympic swimmers swimming through and breaking the wall.”
In February, the Backdrops team travelled to the United States
to accept the Best New Product/Technology at the Special