CPL Invests in New Projectors for Arcadia London Extravaganza posted: 24/05/2018
Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) has invested in six brand new Barco UDX-4K 31,000 lumen laser projectors which were deployed on their first event at Arcadia London last weekend!
The vibrant two day alt.culture festival, music and performance extravaganza celebrated the 10th anniversary of the birth of the Arcadia concept, and was staged in London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with the world's largest and best loved Spider at the hub of the performance action.
CPL has been involved with Arcadia since 2013 when the incredible 50 tonne Spider - the conceptual brainchild of Pip Rush and Bert Cole crafted from reimagined military hardware and other recycled industrial waste - first landed at Glastonbury festival.
For the last few UK appearances of the amazing arachnid, CPL has been part of a dedicated production team delivering crisp, detailed projections onto both sides of the three giant legs, which are fundamental structural elements of this awesome 360 degree visual and sonic spectacle.
The new projectors arrived just in time at CPL's West Midlands warehouse for the London event, which was built around Arcadia's incredible Metamorphosis' experience, a dynamic combination of ambitious engineering, acrobatics, stunning visuals and sonic excellence that WOWed everyone in Olympic Park. The festival also included a sizzling line-up of other electronic talent, with all the main action taking place in and around the Spider.
CPL's team was project managed by George Oakey who was joined by Jack Sykes and Robin Emery. They worked closely with Arcadia's production manager Dorian Cameron-Marlow and Tom Wall who co-ordinated all the video mapping.
Fitted with TLD 2.8 - 4.5 lenses, each projected image was mapped precisely onto the front and back of the Spider's legs via Arcadia's AI media server which stored and replayed all the video content.
Most of it was colouring and texturing effects which bring additional definition and depth to the legs so they really pop out, while the rest of the Spider is illuminated by lighting rigged on the body, legs and lighting towers positioned around the performance field.
The projectors were located on six custom weatherised scaffolding towers built around the perimeter of the field-of-play / performance space as in previous years, with a throw distance of approximately 40 metres.
Having these new Barco machines enabled them to achieve a lot more intensity than in previous shows, using the same amount of projectors!
The set up was therefore quicker, neater and much more efficient, and everyone was impressed with the output and power of the Barcos considering their small size! enthused George
The UDX-4K32 has 4K UHD resolution and a guaranteed 31,000 lumen output with accurate colours at all times thanks to its Constant Light Output (CLO) functionality. The UDX platform also currently offers the widest colour spectrum in the industry without compromising on the brightness.
There was a noticeable difference in the quality and feel of the projections on this show, commented George, who has worked on previous UK Arcadia shows where they used conventional lamped rather than laser projectors.
One of the technical challenges of Arcadia London was getting a stable data signal run out to the projectors across 150 - 300 metre fibre cables around the perimeter of the performance space.
CPL used six of their Connex 2-way fibre DVI/RJ45 fibre optic converter transmission systems which enabled both the data carrying the content to the machines and the projector control network and signals including on/off, colour settings, contrast, geometry control and other monitoring and feedback to run down the same line.
This is a neat, robust solution designed for live events and saves time and reduces the need for unnecessary and unwieldy cabling.
For the first time CPL also had remote control over the projectors using Barco's Projector Toolset software, developed to help manage the projector parameters quickly and easily from any location, either through the network or an RS232 connection.
This was especially helpful during the video content mapping process, allowing George and the team to walk the field with a laptop and adjust the projectors from exactly the right spots to see the full detail and exactly how and what tweaks needed to be applied,.
Projector power to each tower was a dedicated 32A single phase supply.
George commented, It was a pleasure to work on the Arcadia 10th Anniversary. Dorian and his team were very accommodating and well organised which helped us deliver this high-end video package. We received constant feedback from the whole Arcadia crew on how sharp and defined the projections looked, and for me personally, it was the most impressive Arcadia I've worked on to date from a video point of view .
Arcadia London proved to be a hugely memorable May Bank Holiday weekend for the capital - not least due to the somewhat unexpected glorious weather which followed a very late spring in the UK!
In addition to the latest edition of the renowned Metamorphosis experience, the event's live line up was headlined by Leftfield and Sven V th, Rudimental playing a show-stopping DJ set as did Noisia who closed the event with many more in between. Arcadia's new immersive tented venue, The Reactor, ran a full line-up as Stage Two, fuelling more high energy performances from a diverse curation of international DJs.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the First Look for Land of Sin' - Premier...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
CPL Invests in New Projectors for Arcadia London Extravaganza posted: 24/05/2018 
