By Debra Kaufman
Avatar: The Way of Water was the focus of the HPA Tech Retreat Supersession; over 700 attendees enjoyed a deep dive into the challenges in making this technologically advanced movie. But, behind the scenes, another technological feat was achieved: turning the Westin Mission Hills ballroom into a state-of-the-art theater capable of screening 4K, 48 fps per eye, 3D, projected at a bright 14-foot lamberts. I don't know how many systems are capable of doing this, but it's in the handfuls, not hundreds, says Loren Nielsen, head of the Supersession committee with co-chair Leon Silverman.
Before Avatar content would be released for use in the Supersession, the theater needed to pass approval of Avatar producer Jon Landau and senior vice president production services and technology, Geoff Burdick of Lightstorm Entertainment as well as The Walt Disney Studio, which made the 1,065 digital masters. Getting approval for showing the content was key to the Supersession's success. We didn't just want to talk about Avatar, adds Nielsen, who was also the Supersession producer. We wanted to show it and that meant we had to create a purpose-built state-of-the-art theater inside the Westin. We immediately knew we needed professional theater building assistance.
Nielsen and Silverman knew exactly who they wanted to build the theater: Kevin KDR Rosenberger, who was director of projection services at Walt Disney Studios for 33 years and involved with Digital Cinema for its inception. Leon called me, and I said absolutely not, says Rosenberger. Then he talked me into it. Silverman did that in part by pointing out that the entire audience would be made up of digital cinema pioneers and experts or, as he put it, KDR's people.
Rosenberger's first step was to focus on all the boxes he needed to check: 4K, 3D, high frame rate. He also considered that the day after the Supersession, the same ballroom would be used for the HPA Tech Retreat presentations. We wanted to make sure we could dovetail into that, he explains. One of his challenges would be training the hotel's AV team, which previously handled events that usually take place in a ballroom venue. My job is to hold standards, says Rosenberger. I had to teach this group of people to do something more professional and creative than they had done for HPA before. The ballroom's bright, beautiful interior worked against the presentation goals the team needed to achieve, so the first step was hanging black curtains around the perimeter and bringing in power, cabling and all the safety signage necessary.
To accomplish a reasonable line-of-sight for 3D, the team determined that three screens were needed. Day one, we set up seats in a reverse fan facing the screens, says Rosenberger. Most of the seats were oriented to the left and right screens, and after the Supersession, the seats were reoriented to focus on the center screen and dais.
On the projector end, coordinating with Rosenberger, Nielsen tapped Christie Digital executive vice president Brian Claypool to provide the technology and the people who could run it. In addition to a Xenon system, Christie Digital provided two very high-end laser projection systems to achieve the 14-foot lambert brightness in 3D mode. Christie Digital senior technical manager Judson Cross describes the biggest technical challenge. We had to find a way to present two synchronized screens to cover a wide seating area with the highest possible frame rate and the highest possible brightness, he says. Christie worked closely with GDC Technology to ensure seamless - and perfectly synchronized - delivery of content via the company's playback servers. At Christie's Cypress, California office, Cross and Rosenberger staged the equipment to test it for the live event until he knew the system would be capable of presenting the content in the filmmakers' desired format and making unexpected changes in the presentations.
RealD, another digital cinema pioneer, was another important partner in the endeavor. It's hard to do 3D well, especially when it's bright, says Nielsen. Years of development went into RealD Ultimate Screen technology and the company very generously had screens manufactured for us in China to the exact size needed. They also provided the RealD XL 3D System optics designed for high brightness and 3D glasses.
Separate from installing the physical infrastructure for the event, from the beginning, Nielsen and Silverman worked closely with Lightstorm and Disney to get clearance for content and a remote interview with Landau. The Walt Disney Studio's Kim Beresford described the company's role in creating 1,065 different deliverables.
Also participating in the day's presentations were Sony (whose Venice cameras were used to lens Avatar), Deluxe, Eikon Group and Pixelogic. HPA board member Joachim JZ Zell helped wrangle the camera crew, which included cinematographers Russell Carpenter, ASC and Robin Charters. Also of note, panelist Tashi Trieu, Lightstorm colorist for the film, is a graduate of HPA's first YEP group.
On Monday, the day before the Supersession, the team spent the day rehearsing. On Tuesday, the Supersession went off without a hitch. People really responded to it, says Nielsen. Although it's a professional audience that lives in this world, very few of them had seen this content presented exactly the way the filmmakers wanted it to be seen.
Rosenberger was impressed with how it all came together. HPA was amazingly professional, he says. After all, it's their middle name and it was really interesting working with the committee, which always had the show in mind. He also praised the professionalism of the hotel's AV crew. On site, there were 30 to 40 people all handling the logistic
Most recent headlines
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
09/05/2025
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Studio Technologies said the Harvard University athletics department has integrated Dante-enabled equipment from the vendor into its broadcast ...
09/05/2025
NEW YORK ITN, a provider of a local linear supply side platform, and Magnite, a independent sell-side advertising company, have announced that they working toge...
09/05/2025
LEEDS, U.K. Nugen Audio has launched a new speech intelligibility plug-in, DialogCheck and offered up quotes from technologists working at places like Netflix p...
09/05/2025
AJA I/O Gear: The Heart of Broadcast Solutions' VEGO Mobile Editing Solution
Brie Clayton May 8, 2025
0 Comments
When working remotely on broadcas...
09/05/2025
What do they teach in an Advanced Adobe After Effects Course?
Roland Kahlenberg May 8, 2025
0 Comments
There aren't many advanced After Effects co...
09/05/2025
Larry Jordan Sits with Trevor Morgan of OpenDrives at NAB 2025
Brie Clayton May 8, 2025
0 Comments
Trevor Morgan, COO of OpenDrives, shares how the co...
09/05/2025
Berklee Popular Music Institute Announces UK Festival Debut and Tour Dates For the first time, BPMI will bring Berklee-affiliated artists and students to the ...
08/05/2025
A sinister fairy infiltrates a desperate family in Kenneth Dagatan's In My Mother's Skin, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Photo co...
08/05/2025
As expected, continued weak demand from key sales markets and declining economic...
08/05/2025
A new three-part series is coming to BBC iPlayer and BBC One
(Image: The Christie Archive Trust)
The BBC has announced Agatha Christie's Endless Night, a...
08/05/2025
For skyward-bound operators, training focuses on the unique aspects of flying ISR missions, including the management of onboard surveillance equipment and the e...
08/05/2025
The cable industry has told the Federal Communications Commission it supports the National Association of Broadcasters' proposal to allow broadcasters to us...
08/05/2025
WASHINGTON The Consumer Technology Association has continued its opposition to mandates requiring that NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 tuners be included in new TV sets, sa...
08/05/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real time visualization, has named Paul Maroni as Vice Pres...
08/05/2025
This year's UK Pavilion in hall 5, once again managed by Tradefair, will provide visitors with the unique opportunity to discuss and be involved in cutting ...
08/05/2025
Rohde & Schwarz will showcase its latest energy-efficient transmitters and 5G Broadcast technologies, designed to support network operators and content provider...
08/05/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group has tapped Bill Nardi as vice president of station operations, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day broadcast operations ...
08/05/2025
SEATTLE LumaTouch is partnering with CNN Academy to improve mobile storytelling techniques and support training across all of CNN Academy's training simulat...
08/05/2025
WASHINGTON The Society of Broadcast Engineers has filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission that support a proposal by the National Association ...
08/05/2025
Senior adviser to the United States Agency for Global Media Kari Lake has announced that One America News Network (OAN) will provide newsfeed services for fre...
08/05/2025
EdMon Expands as AI-Driven Post Production Workflows Gains Traction in Sweden an...
08/05/2025
Using Luma Mattes in Adobe Premiere Pro
Graham Quince May 7, 2025
0 Comments
This very quick tutorial shows you how to take an RGB clip and apply its ...
08/05/2025
OpenDrives Unveils Free Your Data' Initiative with New Astraeus Cloud-Nativ...
08/05/2025
Student Spotlight: Grigori Balasanyan The Armenian composer, who was named Boston Conservatory at Berklees 2025 student commencement speaker, talks about his ...
08/05/2025
08 May 2025
VEON Shareholders Re-elect Board at 2025 AGM, Founder Augie Fabela ...
08/05/2025
Comedy and entertainment channel U&Dave bring back their #1 ranked programme of ...
08/05/2025
May 8th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Unveils New Premieres Spanning Film and Music
Slick Rick's Victory with Idris Elba a...
08/05/2025
May 8th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces Lineup for Inaugural Storytelling Summit
11-Day Industry Event Launches with Tal...
08/05/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Vizrt's Nicholas Jameson on AI in Workflows, Pushing Boundarie...
08/05/2025
Creating Alternative Brand Experiences: Live Sports in the Age of Fortnite, Meta...
08/05/2025
PGA TOUR's David Piccolo: Advanced Graphics and Virtual Production Tools are...
08/05/2025
Tech Focus: Advancing Immersion in Sports Broadcasting with AR and Virtual Produ...
08/05/2025
Expect even more chaos this July with Harriet Webb leading the returning cast, p...
08/05/2025
Back to All News
Now in Production: Comedy Action Film Husbands in Action'...
08/05/2025
TenneT relies on Arvato Systems for market communication
Energy industry: Impressive market communication know-how and system integration expertise
G tersloh...
08/05/2025
When Taiki Hamamoto, 22, came across a Hanafuda deck at his local game shop, he was intrigued. He had grown up playing the traditional Japanese card game with f...
08/05/2025
The Liveline is now open , said Joe Duffy earlier today, as he previewed this af...
08/05/2025
RT , in association with the BBC, Screen Ireland and Cineflix Rights has reveale...
08/05/2025
Artificial intelligence is helping identify and treat diseases faster with better results for humankind. Natural disasters like wildfires are next.
Fires in th...
08/05/2025
Calling all wiseguys - 2K's acclaimed Mafia franchise is available to stream...
08/05/2025
As AI use cases continue to expand - from document summarization to custom software agents - developers and enthusiasts are seeking faster, more flexible ways t...
07/05/2025
Discovering music should feel effortless and fun. That's why Spotify continu...
07/05/2025
SBS and NITV mark National Reconciliation Week with compelling premieres recogni...
07/05/2025
SBS commences search for a new Western Sydney production hub location
7 May, 2025
Media releases
SBS has today launched a Request for Expressions of Intere...
07/05/2025
Warsaw, Poland - April 28, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, has released its latest March All Screens Video Landscap...
07/05/2025
LONDON Movie fans hoping to save money by waiting until their favorite new films appear on streaming services will have to wait a bit longer now, according to a...
07/05/2025
MECCA, Saudi Arabia Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA) has selected Grass Valley to provide a major technology upgrade of its broadcast facility here....
07/05/2025
Sony and Nevion provide guidance on IP network architecture options for live pro...
By Debra Kaufman
