The ongoing show at the 112-foot tall statue of Adiyogi at the Isha Yoga Centre in Tamil Nadu, India involves Dataton Watchout software, Watchmax media servers, and Epson projectors.
One hundred and twelve feet tall, the statue of Adiyogi rises majestically above the Isha Yoga Center in the beautiful foothills at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. And every weekend, the world-record bust comes to life in a projection-mapped interpretation of the story of the Adiyogi’s divine appearance. Dataton Watchout mapping software, Watchmax media servers, surround sound and Epson projectors help deliver the production by Axis Three Dee Studios Pvt. Ltd.
The premiere of Adiyogi Divya Darshanam (roughly translated as Adiyogi’s Divine Appearance) was one of the main highlights of this year’s Mahashivratri event at the Isha Yoga Center, near the Velliangiri mountains in southern India. The show, produced and played back with the Dataton Watchout system is 14 minutes, 10 seconds projection-mapped chronicle, depicting the story of how Adiyogi transmitted the ancient science of yoga to his seven disciples (called the Saptrarishis), to his beloved, Devi Parvati and his constant companions, the formless Ganas. In the show, vivid 4K content is complemented by a background narrative by the founder of Isha himself, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.
The interpretation was commissioned by the Isha Yoga Center to reach out to visitors and devotees in a visually immersive manner, the likes of which had never been seen before. The center appointed Axis Three Dee Studios Pvt. Ltd to execute the entire project from start to finish, including the complete production of the visuals with CEO Avijit Samajdar taking the role of producer and director. The technical team also included experts from Dataton and projector manufacturer Epson to ensure that the spectacular show performed flawlessly and with maximum impact. The undertaking resulted in several firsts – and presented several challenges.
Black Surface
The subject of the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Bust, the Adiyogi statue is built of steel and painted black. The satin finish and highly uneven topography called for some creative thinking by the team at Axis Three Dee Studios.
“Projection mappings are usually attempted on lighter colored surfaces that evenly reflect light, unlike in this case, black, which greatly absorbed it,” said Samajdar. “What’s more, the sheen on the surface meant that the proper colors did not appear and the team devised a unique color palette (Real Time Colour Cancellation process) to counter the interference hues from the shiny surface. Thus, the final amalgam of colors using this process, came out vivid and rich during projection, with unwanted reflective hues canceled out in real-time.”
Scale
Another challenge was the sheer scale of the project. The entire surface area to be projected upon was over 8,000 sq ft – the statue is, after all, the largest bust in the world! To achieve full image coverage with crisp and vibrant imagery, 24 x 15,000 lumens laser projectors from Epson, running under Dataton Watchout, were used in a unique stacking configuration.
“Due to certain inherent constraints on the locations for the permanent set-up of the two projection towers at the site, the projectors were arranged in four stacked sets by the technical team, to ensure maximum optimization of lumens and angle of incidence of the projected light,” said Samajdar.
Ashok Sharma, regional sales manager at Dataton, added: “Naturally, the center did not want to have a projection tower built in front of the Adiyogi statue as this could obstruct viewing and visitors. The solution was to build two towers, of limited height, at 45-degree angles. The left tower covers the entire left side of the statue and the right tower covers the whole right side of the statue.
“The mapped show was programmed in Watchout production software by Manesh “Manu” Kadam and we then deployed two Watchmax media servers to ensure flawless mapping of the content on the surface of the Adiyogi from both left and right sides. The Dataton Watchmax servers are also integrated with the 5.1 channel sound of the show with Sirvinder “Lucky” Singh from Purple Vector responsible for overall AV system integration.”
The Watchout system was chosen due to its track record in the industry as a reliable and versatile tool for mapping applications. As the first performance of the show was in front of a VIP audience, headed by the president of India, Ram Nath Kovind, there was no room for anything less than perfection.
“The show creators appreciated the easy-to-navigate interface in Watchout and how smoothly changes could be implemented – even on the day of the launch,” said Sharma. “On the big day, the mapped content played back flawlessly on the surface of the Adiyogi, creating a truly magnificent experience for over 350,000 spectators.”
Adiyogi Divya Darshanam is a permanent show at the Isha Yoga Center, open to all visitors free of charge. It plays at 8 pm every Saturday and Sunday. The shows also run on other auspicious days such as Amavasya (New Moon) and Pournami (Full Moon).
The president of India, Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the show on 4 March 2019 on the occasion of Maha Shivratri, a Hindu festival celebrated across India on the New Moon day for Lord Shiva.
A project video can be seen here: https://www.dataton.com/showcases/adi-yogi-divya-darshanam-india