d3 Solution Is System of Choice for Opera Companies across the US

	Santa Fe Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor. Photo: Paul Horpedahl.

As projected content increases on opera stages nationwide, the d3 Technologies solution has become the system of choice at The Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Santa Fe Opera, and The Seattle Opera.

The Lyric Opera invested in the d3 solution in 2016, as lighting director Chris Maravich adds, "We had another media server in our inventory and had used other brands from time to time, but we were looking to step up to something with increased functionality and control."

"We saw a demo of the 4x4pro at Intelligent Lighting Creations and liked the expansiveness of it: One server with many outputs could do four times that of our existing system," notes Maravich. He estimates that 50 percent of The Lyric Opera's productions now require a media server. "Everyone wants to add projections and LED video" to their staging, he reports.

Last season the opera company's production of Les Troyens by Berlioz used their 4x4pro extensively. "The giant set was on a turntable. The set wall was 26' tall and 70' wide, curved and rotating with three projectors focusing on the front or back wall. The server read information from the TAIT Navigator on the turntable and located the right set in space for each projection." says Maravich.

d3 was used for the productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute and Massenet's Don Quichotte. The 2017-2018 season, which begins in early October, will also utilize the pro range servers in Puccini's Turandot, Wagner's Die Walkure and a new production of Gounod's Faust. "Faust will test a lot of the server's functionality by working with TAIT to map and track the moving scenery," says Maravich.

The Lyric Opera maintains a large fiber optic network to connect the projectors, some 300' away, to the server and the server to the control consoles.

Maravich says the 4x4pro is "very stable compared to other systems we've seen. It has a large capacity for high-resolution files, which it handles with no problems at all." In addition, he hails the 4x4pro's "straightforward design" and ease of use. "It's easy to understand how to get content on stage, yet you can delve deep into the complexities of the server if you want to."

The Santa Fe Opera has also recently invested in d3 for their 2,200 seated outdoor venue. Their opera season runs through July and August with five operas rotating in repertory. Last year, due to increasing demand, the company decided they needed to improve the future of video design within their productions.

"We do 37 performances in two months, so the idea of renting a system, including for tech and rehearsals, was very expensive," says Paul Horpedahl, production and facilities director. "Ben Piercy and Peter Negrini both suggested switching to d3 for its speed and conciseness in editing." A demo held by d3 "really sold" The Santa Fe Opera on a pair of 2x4pros, which it obtained from Barbizon Denver.

"The ease of editing has made our team very happy," he notes. "It's critical that the projection aspect of staging does not take over tech time, which can't be expanded."

This season, three of the productions were "heavy projection users," says Horpedahl: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel, and the world premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, by Mark Campbell and Mason Bates.

"We used BlackTrax for motion tracking content on panels for 95-percent of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, reports production electrician Travis Shupe. Six panels, each about 5' x 12', rotated and tracked on stage with projections mapped to all sides; content was a combination of abstract and photoreal imagery.

"The integration of BlackTrax and d3 worked very smoothly," says Shupe who has been "incredibly impressed with what you can accomplish with d3. It allows a lot of flexibility, freedom, and speed. You can accomplish quite extensive and detailed tasks in a short amount of time."

He gives kudos to d3 Designer software. "Prepping a show offline is huge for us, since we don't have much time on stage," he says. "I can sit in the office with the design team and the director and we can walk through the show. That's hugely helpful."

The Santa Fe Opera's productions have used d3 content versioning and QuickCal projector calibration, too. "Three of the shows in repertory shared projectors," notes Shupe. "QuickCal allowed us to do a daily focus, look at the QuickCal points, make adjustments needed in half-an-hour and the show was up and running. We were quite nervous about having three shows in rep with projectors but QuickCal relieved our anxiety."

The Seattle Opera decided to upgrade its media server in 2015 and acquired a d3 4x4pro for its annual calendar of five productions staged in The Seattle Center's McCaw Hall. "A design studio in town recommended d3 and we liked the idea of a single media server that was able to feed all the projectors," says Chris Reay, technical manager and production coordinator. "For the 2016-2017 season we used the 4x4pro for additional effects in some productions while other shows were specifically designed around projection."

A new production of Rossini's rarely performed The Wicked Adventures of Count Ory was "designed to look like Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations," says Reay. "An opening animated sequence was projected onto moving cloud panels and the backdrop was projected landscapes."

The 4x4pro was used on Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel when the hapless children fall asleep in the woods. "It was a very modernist design," says Reay. "We flew in 10 monitors around the stage and projected a fast-food montage in their dream sequence."

A new production of Janacek's Katya Kabanova also deployed d3. The set was designed as a large three-wall box with projection on the inside. "It had a very Americana feel with Pacific Northwest imagery of waterfalls, forests, and other vistas, the majority of which was footage shot locally," notes Reay.

d3's QuickCal feature is proving "very handy because we have limited time in the theatre," which the company shares with The Pacific Northwest Ballet, says Reay. "And 3D modeling also saves us time and money on stage. We previs everything but try to be flexible once we get on stage so we can offer options as the production evolves."

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs will be coming to The Seattle Opera next season. "We plan to use d3's BlackTrax integration for that production," says Reay. "Our 4x4pro is performing well. It's a really great addition for us."