A fairly new technology (in terms of theatre). and as costs for projectors and screens decrease a massive area of expansion. Many of our shows have now used video and projection as an integral part of the show.

The theatre owns a QLab control system, this will be our main video system. QLab 3 has some very powerful video features, a short intro to the surfaces feature can be found on the QLab website: http://figure53.com/qlab/documentation/.

Software that has been used in the past, mainly PowerPoint and Screen Monkey are not production ready for a theatre enviroment, hence the push to use something like QLab.

In the past we've used VLC, Powerpoint and hardware video switchers but this has always been a bodge-job hurriedly done in the week before the show. We've also played around with a couple of bits of software more dedicated for this kind of role.

• http://www.screenmonkey.co.uk/ - Useful for straight playback/mixing - Screen Monkey, used for Nineteen-Eighty Four, A Clockwork Orange and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
• http://hcgilje.wordpress.com/vpt/ - Fantastic for projection mapping, complicated - VPT, never used for a show

Depending on the software the following options are available:

• Keyboard input on each media server
• Network control to central media server
• MIDI from computer / LX desk
• DMX from LX desk

The theatre owns two projectors.

1. Epson EB-92
   1. 2400 lumens
   2. 4:3 aspect ratio
   3. 1.48-1.77:1 Throw ratio
2. Ben-Q –no data sheet found as of April 2013
   (NEED MODELS/MAKES/BRIGHTNESS HERE).

These are standard consumer units, and are not that bright. A mofo of a projector can be hired from TEC.

Hawthorns, Nottingham AV, Quadrant Video etc will have projectors/plasma screens. LED surfaces should be investigated.

We've built some brackets to allow these projectors to be hung from the rig. Powering them in the air is easy, we have some 15A→IEC cables that can power the units from a socket on one of the bars. That circuit should then be connected to hard power (ie NOT the dimmers).

There is a permanent VGA run from the tech box to the SR wing, this can be moved but should be returned to its default position at the get-out.

Faust Is Dead used two canvas screens either side of stage with two mirrored projectors connected to TECs Kramer video switcher. Content was from a laptop with videos playing from VLC and a camcorder onstage.

Closer used three screens (portait SR, landscape UC, portrait SL) each with projectors hooked up to three separate computers running powerpoint. This was a right pain!

Nineteen-Eighty Four was in the round and has two rear projected screens. Projections were mirrored running from a computer with Screen Monkey.

A Clockwork Orange had the same screen setup as Closer. We had three computers running Screen Monkey, each one doing a screen. Some mapping was done to fit the image to the screens.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein used three small canvas screens of various sizes. A single projector (TECs big Panasonic unit) was hung FOH and mapping was used to pick out these screens. Screen Monkey was used for this mapping, a few scenes used the projector over the whole stage for effects. Screen Monkey just about handled this, but it wouln't be desirable to do this again, the software is quite buggy.