Nationwide Video Supports Students at Cal Arts Expo

Nestled in the hills just north of Los Angeles, California Institute for the Arts—CalArts for short— is a liberal arts school that was founded by Walt Disney to further the commitment to higher education.

This year, Nationwide Video’s National Training Manager, Kevin Ring, was a professor in the School of Theater Experience Design & Production teaching a Disguise Media Server class. As a lifelong learner and an incredible teacher, Kevin was the perfect fit to teach these students an introductory class to equip them with a wealth of knowledge and offer a peek into the professional world of projection mapping.

The CalArts students were very eager to learn all semester and that showed very clearly at CalArts Expo. CalArts Expo is the year end festival of art that is thrown to celebrate art and all the students’ creations. For the students in the Disguise Media Server class, their year end objective was to projector map the on-campus Amphitheater known as “The Wild Beast.” Equipped with 30 sound control baffles, The Wild Beast was the perfect canvas for Kevin Ring and his students. Peter Flaherty, teacher of interactive media for performance at Cal Arts, also oversaw the project and shared insights from his years of experience as a director and interactive artist whose work has shown in over a hundred international venues.

Supported by brilliant leadership from the Cal Arts staff, the students had the objective of projection mapping The Wild Beast and creating interactive media that would be displayed after the sun set for the day at Cal Arts Expo. Using a Disguise GX 1 Media Server and three Panasonic PT-RZ12KU projectors provided by Nationwide Video, the students mapped out the 30 sound baffles using a lidar scanner to create a 3D rendering. Once that was created, they all made their own individual works of art that interacted with the flow of the sound baffles. All that was left to do was sit back and enjoy the show as their art was displayed on the stunning structure.

Cal Arts Expo was an amazing event dedicated to art and growth. The students showed so much potential from start to finish and they will all go on to do amazing things in the industry. At Nationwide Video, we think it’s very important to commit to creating interest in projection mapping and interactive media so we were honored to be able to support this event by providing gear and the mind of Kevin Ring. We will always stay committed to creating an industry that is supportive of, and developmental for, newcomers!