Digital Curtain, Lit By Projection, Engages, Entertains Guests At Japanese Music College

November 5, 2020 by Dave Haynes

This is live events AV more than digital signage, but shows what’s possible with projection on a grand scale, and great creative.

It is the digital curtain of the new theater, open in August, at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music (SGCM) in Japan, in the general orbit of Tokyo.

The school decided to use a “digital curtain” instead of installing a traditional Japanese tab curtain. The idea was to enable content that was changeable and could “surprise, impress and uplift audiences before a performance.”

The “digital curtain” is the first of its kind to be installed in an educational institution in Japan.

It is 19 meters wide and 4.84 meters high, driven by two big Christie Boxer 4K30 3DLP projectors installed at the rear of the theater. Both projectors are equipped with , and running Christie’s  Mystique software, which does alignment and calibration.

Says CVhristie in its PR about the MUSIC POOL CINO venue:

Professor Makoto Shinohara, Head of Musical Theatre Course, SGCM, said, “When audiences enter MUSIC POOL CINO for a performance, a still image is displayed so it looks like a normal stage curtain. The surprise comes when visuals on the curtain begin to move a few minutes before the show starts.

A spokesperson from Ushio Lighting Inc. added, “Since images are projected on the curtain, its edges may shift back and forth under the influence of air conditioning or atmospheric pressure, resulting in distortion or deviation of the portion where two images blend. Christie Mystique software has been introduced to overcome these misalignments. The ability to quickly adjust and maintain multiple projector projections makes troubleshooting easy for the user.”

Ushio is Christie’s parent company.

Content was produced for the digital curtain by Naked Inc. and is based on “Nanban Byobu” by renowned 15^th century Japanese painter Naizen Kano. This “Byobu”, or the folding screen itself, is from the Azuchi-Momoyama period in the late 1500s, which depicts colorful and gorgeous Nanban (foreign) ships, buildings and people that arrived in Japan from ports in places such as Spain and Portugal.

Prof. Shinohara noted that the digital curtain of MUSIC POOL CINO has been designed to draw attention to art, not only for visitors but also for current students of SGCM, students preparing to enter the university, and international students.

This video shows content:

https://twitter.com/ChristieDigital/status/1324391783485329410