Project overview
When Bangarra Dance Theater set out to create a new main stage production Illume, the goal was not just to create a powerful performance, but to construct a new visual language.
As a poetic exploration, "Illume" focuses on the theme of "how light connects the physical world and the spiritual world", presenting the unique essence of Aboriginal narratives through dance, sound, and the introduction of LED technology for the first time. The work was completed by Mirnin choreographer Frances Rings and Goolarrgon Bard visual artist Darrell Sibosado. The cross-cultural collaboration between the two artists placed extremely high demands on the stage design: it must perfectly integrate traditional narrative with cutting-edge technology while maintaining cultural authenticity.
To realize this vision, the production team enlisted Craig Wilkinson from Brisbane-based optikal bloc to design the stage visuals. He built a stage environment with high-performance LED displays as the core, making LED both a dance element and a narrative medium. In the end, "Illume" was brought to life with a new attitude with the support of Bontemp Technology's Tessera LED video processor.
Project Challenge
The introduction of large-scale LED screen into Bangarra's world-renowned dance works is a new exploration. The visual system needs to operate at extremely low brightness to maintain the delicacy required for the dance and maintain the immersion of the performance, while also being able to burst out with stunning visual impact at the climax of the drama. The image must be perfectly connected with the projection and physical scenery to create a stage and narrative space.A sense of seamless continuity. To achieve this visual balance of rigidity and softness, it is necessary to accurately control contrast, tone and timing, and ensure that the entire system remains absolutely stable during the national tour from Sydney to Perth, Albany, Canberra, Brisbane, Darwin, Melbourne and other cities.
Solution
To realize this cross-cultural and technically challenging vision, Bontemp's long-term partner Novatech Creative Events Technology Company (headquartered in Adelaide) provided and built a complete LED system:
Radio Vision CB5 LED Display: In the center of the stage stands a 13.2m x 6m main stage LED wall built by ROE CB5 as the core visual carrier.
三台Barco Projectors work in conjunction with LED walls to further enrich the stage. The stage also features seven "trees of light" wrapped in LED light strips, large projection swirls, and a striking 3D printed horn-shaped stage structure.
Bontemp Technology's Tessera SX40 4K LED video processor drives the entire LED system, and is paired with four Tessera XD 10G data distributors to provide the high stability, accurate color and low-latency performance required for the national tour.
This system ensured that the timecode synchronization between the LEDs, lights and projections was exactly the same, allowing Wilkinson's visual design and choreography to match the rhythm of every detail.
Dark Magic: presents excellent low-light performance, ensuring that it can still be presented in the weakest light environment on the stageSmooth gradients and rich detail with no visible color banding or graininess.
API control: Real-time brightness adjustment is achieved through QLab, so that visual cues and performance dynamics are perfectly synchronized, allowing light to become a narrative language that synchronizes with the dancers.
Ultra Low Latency: Ensures complete synchronization of LED, projection and lighting images, making the visual coherence of the entire performance reach movie-like accuracy.
Technical challenges
In one of the most shocking scenes of "Illume", a pure white light instantly swept across the stage - this key command was accurately triggered through Bontemp API integration, enabling QLab direct control of brightness adjustment. Throughout the performance, the Dark Magic function became the key to maintaining the delicate texture of Sibosado's visual work, ensuring that the picture was smooth and natural even if the brightness was controlled to an extremely low range. Nationwide tourThe environment is complex and changeable, placing stringent requirements on equipment stability. Facing the challenges of climate, temperature, humidity and power supply conditions in different cities, the powerful structural design and diagnostic tools of the Tessera processor provide the entire team with full confidence.
Project results
"Illume" sets a new benchmark for visual storytelling in live dance theatre. Bangtemp's LED video processing technology allows a natural dialogue between traditional Aboriginal narratives and modern stage technology, allowing light, movement and cultural stories to interweave new expressions. Bangarra, optikal bloc and Novatech The cross-border cooperation with Bontime Technology not only achieved the goal, but also further broadened the possible boundaries of live performance design. The success of the work in the national tour confirms the huge creative potential that emerges when LED technology is infused with a deep respect for culture and stories.
Customer testimonials
"Dark Magic This is key to our ability to achieve detailed results at very low brightness, ensuring that gradient transitions are free of color banding. The ability to send brightness commands from QLab via the API is particularly impressive - when the design team needs to highlight the bright white light in the overall dark scene to impact the audience, the screen operates at a very low brightness for most of the time, but in a few key moments, the performance is amazing, and the Tessera remains smooth even at low brightness percentages. SX40 has always been our first choice processor, and we can't imagine anything else that can replace it to support the quality feast we pursue. ”
—— Leko Novakovic, Managing Director of Novatech
