- At Dutch superstar Marco Borsato's Symphonica in Rosso, BlackTrax motion tracking was used to create a guitar-shaped LED interactive video floor and track Borsato at all times on stage. The Symphonica in Rosso–which included multiple sold-out shows–was held at Amsterdam Ziggodome Arena in 2016.
Marco Borsato's Symphonic in Rosso
Jo Pauly, d3 operator and programmer from Belgium-based Visual Solutions was hired to consult and design all video during the preplanning process.
The BlackTrax motion tracking solution was used to track key performer, Marco Borsato, on stage and on a guitar shaped interactive LED video catwalk throughout the performance. BlackTrax was integrated with d3 technologies 4×4pro media servers to manage content for the entire concert, including the main stage LED wall, two IMAG LED walls and two rows of LED video banners throughout the venue.
“We chose BlackTrax for its flexibility to track and integrate with interactive content. It also needed to follow the artist on stage and trigger time code and connect to the d3 media server used to visualize rapidly some high-resolution stage views. We could make the complete output map in our studio so on arrival at Amsterdam Ziggodome Arena, we just plugged in the fiber cables to the LED wall and we were technically ready to go,” said Pauly.
Five BlackTrax cameras were positioned in the ceiling and focused on the catwalk and a large portion of the stage.
At the start of each performance and when Marco Borsato stepped out onto the guitar-shaped catwalk, an image of a guitar lit up on the stage. By combining BlackTrax with real-time effects generator Notch by 10bit, Pauly was able to create the illusion that Marco Borsato’s footsteps caused a ripple effect, or that fire was lit beneath his feet.
The d3 media server received positional data from the three Blacktrax LEDs positioned on Marco Borsato and five ceiling mounted BlackTrax cameras.
“During the performance, we were able to track the artist on stage and reproduce content at its position. Any real time or last-minute content changes could be made without having to pre-program our timeline. We could simulate the artist live using tracking and could see how the content would react or how fluent the effect would be,” said Pauly.
