In the summer of 2023, the Capitole de Toulouse National Opera hosted Mefistofele, an opera adapted from Goethe’s famous tragedy. Video was central to the staging of this opera, with an ambitious projection on a conch shell installed on the Théâtre du Capitole stage.
To ensure the distribution of the video creation, the Capitole de Toulouse teams called on various Modulo Pi solutions, including its projection study tools and video-projector auto-calibration module.
Pierre-Emmanuel Triffault, Head of Audiovisual at the Capitole de Toulouse Opera, explained: “The main challenge came from the shape of this projection surface. How can we get sufficient light power to evenly cover such curved surface, and how can we position the projectors knowing that there are singers on stage and the projectors must not be too noisy, nor project onto the singers’ faces?”
On the advice of Renaud Gindre, video consultant on the project, the Capitole de Toulouse Opera’s AV team turned to various solutions developed by Modulo Pi, including the Modulo Kinetic media server’s projection study and simulation tools, as well as the video-projector auto-calibration module.
Pierre-Emmanuel Triffault explained: “Thanks to Modulo Kinetic’s simulation tools, we saw that we could free ourselves from many constraints. What started as very complicated ultimately became simple.”
While the initial brief recommended using 4 x 30,000 lumen video projectors, placing two projectors at the top, and two at the bottom, crossing their beams and warping the images, the projection study carried out in Modulo Kinetic made it possible to simplify the setup while guaranteeing optimal light output.
Completion of a projection study led to the selection of 4 x Epson EB-PU2216B projectors with a power of 16,000 lumens, to produce an image of 3144 x 1200 pixels.
Once the choice and positioning of the projectors had been validated, the other challenge was to project a uniform image onto the quarter sphere and its curved surface. To avoid time-consuming manual calibration and obtain a perfectly homogenous image with no hot spots, Modulo Pi’s multi-projectors auto-calibration solution was used with the Modulo Player media server.
Thanks to the auto-calibration module available as an option in the media server, the overlap areas and warping work – particularly complex elements for curved surfaces – were automatically calculated by Modulo Player in just a few minutes. This enabled the projection system to be set up and adjusted in record time.
During rehearsals, the video creation work could be tested and evolved live thanks to an NDI stream received by Modulo Player, enabling a preview of the videos mapped onto the conch.
Modulo Pi’s solutions ensured that the AV production team were able to overcome the challenges of installation, resulting in a high-quality piece with innovative projection creations.
