Experiencing the future using robotic visuals at Pioneers Festival

When experiential event production agency, Media Apparat took on the technical aspects of Pioneers Festival in June 2015, the unique multimedia control and display capabilities of AV Stumpfl Wings Engine Stage and Fullwhite screens were used to their full capability.

“The prestigious annual festival at Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, Austria brought together the smartest start-ups, corporate, media and investors in one place, eager to support the next big thing,” says Andreas Göltl, Managing Director at Media Apparat. “The event happens every year and our task was to make Pioneers Festival a stunning event experience to remember. It’s the type of event that gets a lot of business interest and press internationally and is broadcast live to an international audience of 100,000.”

At Pioneers Festival, video content covered the entire main stage and had several interactive elements. The system needed to be flexible enough to accommodate the diverse range of presentations and changes that the presenters had at the last minute. For the interactive element of presentations, Media Apparat designed the system to use on-stage ‘characters’ made from robotic arms with projection surfaces. These characters had 23 different ‘moods’ that were triggered to accompany each presentation such as being happy or sleeping.

Media Apparat used <link en media-control-systems media-servers wings-engine-stage internal-link internal link in current>Wings Engine Stage media serving and control along with <link en media-control-systems media-servers wings-engine-play internal-link internal link in current>Wings Engine Play for content playback. Additionally, video playout was achieved using six 25K-lumens projectors and one display. Warp and blend functionality was used for two curved screens positioned on each side of the stage. Additionally a three-dimensional presenter logo was projected on to a 12 x 4 metre wide AV Stumpfl <link en projection-screens mobile-projection-screens fullwhite internal-link internal link in current>Fullwhite screen positioned on stage.

The  Avio 2.0 Manager timeline based software system was used to manage content and trigger events through DMX using IO Box DMX and IO Box Relay, as well as triggering the ‘moods’ of the robots using their held screens.

The Wings Engine Stage was configured as a master-slave system from one control PC.

“No presentation was the same and it varied from the Aeromobil, the world’s first flying car to Athos, wearable technology fitness clothing launch combining live break-dancing, 3D mapping and special video content. Another highlight was Anki Drive, the world’s most advanced toy car that uses artificial intelligence,” explains Göltl

.“The AV Stumpfl System performed flawlessly and was fast to set up. In particular, the triggering and simultaneous display of content for the moving robotics and attached screens was really easy to accomplish,” adds Göltl.

“Throughout the process, we received full support from AV Stumpfl in every step of the way from pre-planning to the final result. For us, AV Stumpfl is the most reliable media server partner out there for live events and presentations. We were very pleased with the way the presentations turned out and the client was ecstatic.

”Wings Engine Stage media serving and control and Fullwhite screens are used successfully in thousands of installations in over 60 countries, however Rene Rainer, Sales Manager, Multi Display at AV Stumpfl believes that Pioneers Festival is one of the most technically demanding.

“Companies are there to impress and to invite new investors so there is significant pressure to create a presentation that is visually compelling as well as interactive. It’s validating to see that Andreas and his team were able to deploy AV Stumpfl in such a dynamic and creative way. The results were fresh, engaging and exciting.”

More than 1,600 start-up companies from over 90 countries attended the 2015 edition of Pioneers Festival, Austria.

The 2016 edition will take place from 23-25 May 2016 at Hofburg Imperial Palace, Vienna, Austria.

Realized by: Media Apparat