Skip to main content

Plan for Halloween 2020

I think Canton Chills has been a great success over the past 5 years. Big crowds formed in front of the house and children and adults alike have been entertained and terrified. The house has earned a reputation for frightening technical excellence.

Dawn and I talk about delivering a more kid-friendly experience every year. I still want it to be entertaining and amazing from a technical perspective. This translates into lots of planning.

Our goal: Provide a family-friendly experience that amazes all age groups.

The "family-friendly" part simply comes from using more comical animations and toning down the sound and special effects so as not to frighten more sensitive children (and parents). Walkways will be well lit, but scene lighting will still be theatrical. Scary sounds will be toned down and fog will be moved away from visitors.

Video projections, sound, and DMX driven lights (both static set lights and color settable floods, including strobe) will all be synchronized. A script that utilizes the entire scene will run through a series of scenes, skits, and songs. Background and ambient animations, lights, music, and sound will support the primary focus and provide an immersive experience.

To leverage existing resources, some projections will run independently of the synchronized show. For example, rats will be projected running along a wall.

Synchronization will be made possible using the dual HDMI ports on Raspberry Pi 4 systems and the OMX player with DBUS remote protocol. Resources will be loaded locally on each Pi (or downloaded from the master system). A script player will be developed that coordinates the execution of video and sound for each video output. Four Pi 4 systems can drive eight projections and eight sound channels. The studio's sound system and floor monitors can be used enhance sound and play the primary act when running. Built-in speakers or external speakers can enhance localized videos.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Will 2022 be the Year for Projection Mapping?

I've wanted to set up a projection mapped Halloween display for years but have been hesitant for a few reasons. First, finding a good projector location will be a challenge. Next, it's hard to tell which projector will work well. And lastly, it will cut off access to the driveway and trick-or-treaters. This last one may not be that big of a deal. Given the way the porch comes out from the house, the projector location would be best over the driveway. But, this assumes that the side of the porch cover located between the porch and the garage would be mapped. This really isn't necessary. Positioning a projector at the midpoint of the house would be the best approach when dealing with a traditional keystone correction. This location, however, blocks part of the house from the projection. Last year I was able to set the garage projector to the left side of the driveway and still provide an approach to the porch. I belive that using this in conjunction with a projection map in t...
Post a Comment
Read more

2020 Halloween Technology Updated

I've been thinking about the technical work required to create a multi-projector synchronized display. A previous post on the 2020 plan outlined some technologies to put together to make it happen. And, it was possible, albeit, time-consuming. I revisited a project that I hadn't looked too closely at before. Actually, until two years ago, it wouldn't have had the features that interested me, but it does now. It's called the Sprite Video Player by MedeaWiz and it's quite remarkable. But basically, you can load it with video and sound files and remotely command it to play a file on demand. It even works with DMX. That got me thinking about other DMX elements in the display, like lights and fog, and how I would conduct the various animations and scenes. The simple answer came from the fact that I already have some DMX components, including a USB-to-DMX connector and DMX lighting controllers. I can use a computer running either Vixen Lights or XLights and programmed seq...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sprite DMX Control Confirmed

I spent the day digging through my old DIY DMX projects and piecing together a system in order to test the Sprite DMX controller. It's best to explain as a series of tasks: Locate my Lynx DMX Dongle and install the FTDI/Virtual Comm Port drivers on my laptop (I'll use an older laptop later) Dust off my Lynx Express 16 channel AC controller to test the DMX dongle as well as finding the DMX-wired RJ-45 cables for doing so Figure out the RJ-45 to DMX signal wiring fron the Lynx Dongle Wire up the Sprite DMX module Find a suitable computer based DMX sequencer and figure out how to use it (a lot harder than I expected) Put it all together and make it work (my wife thought I was doing something useful) With the exception of spending about two hours trying to find the two tiny Sprite DMX controllers that I purchased last year (they weren't where I thought they'd be), most of my time was spent finding a suitable and easy-to-learn computer application for controlling the darn th...
Post a Comment
Read more