When thousands of Star Wars devotees gather in Florida during late August to celebrate the iconic film series, Lucasfilm puts on an event befitting the enthusiasm of its die-hard fans. The Digital Stage, sponsored by RealD, was the venue for a unique panel entitled the “Making of…” Star Wars: Episode II, which utilized Barco projection and its MatrixPRO HD-SDI in a presentation to explain how footage originally shot in 2D was manipulated to create a 3D feature film. The Barco projector was also used to show a sneak preview of the movie, in addition to screening two Star Wars movies nightly.
For its Star Wars Celebration VI, hosts treated the crowd to movie screenings, art exhibitions and interactive activities designed to bring the characters to life. Barco supported the festivities by providing technical assistance for its digital cinema projectors and several image processing solutions for the event’s Digital Stage.
“Working with Barco at Star Wars Celebration VI ensured that our digital stage had the best possible presentation quality,” says Mary Franklin, Sr. Events Lead for Lucasfilm. “The technical knowledge of their staff is unparalleled, and I personally appreciate how they stick with preparation for each event until they are absolutely sure it is the best it can be.”
Barco also supplied its ImagePRO HD video scaler/switcher to integrate additional servers with Lucasfilm’s platform for seamless processing. Other Barco image processing tools on the scene were a ScreenPRO-II with EOC, its award-winning ImagePRO-II, MatrixPRO 8x8 DVI router, and MatrixPRO 8x8 HD-SDI Router.