Leeds audio-visual firm to play major role in Edinburgh International Festival launch

A Leeds audio-visual company is set to play a starring role in the launch of the Edinburgh International Festival on Sunday, 7 August.

Blue-i will be projecting an animated narrative onto the western side of Edinburgh castle, recounting the city’s 350 million-year history in just 18 minutes.

The Standard Life Opening Event: Deep Time will be one of the largest projection mapping projects ever staged in the UK.

Blue-i will be providing technical support, projectors and D3 media server equipment for the event, working in partnership with mclcreate and 59 Productions. The company has dedicated 160 hours of programming and pre-production time to prepare for the launch.

A total of 42 projectors, delivering 840,000 lumens of light output, are being rigged up in advance of the show, each one placed and synced by a team of technicians, to turn Edinburgh Castle and its bedrock into a three dimensional canvas.

The event will take place at 10.30pm on Sunday, accompanied by a soundtrack by the Scottish rock band Mogwai. The name ‘Deep Time’ is derived from the concept of geological time developed in the 18th century by the Scottish geologist James Hutton.

The project has involved a technical team from the Blue-i’s theatre arm, which also provides services for many West End musicals.

Ed Cooper of Blue-i Theatre Technology said: “Projection is a powerful tool for engagement at these type of events, but video mapping projects on this scale are few and far between and there are few technical suppliers in the UK that are able to take on a project of this size.

“Working alongside our colleagues from mclcreate has allowed us to support this show stopping display at the iconic Edinburgh Castle.”

John Robb Head of Technical Edinburgh International Festival added: “Standard Life Opening Event: Deep Time is a fantastic, complex and daring event which demonstrates the ambitions and skills of all those involved.

“It is great for us to be working with mclcreate and Blue-i Theatre Technology as it gives us the kit, expertise and facilities to deliver a production of such scale and technological complexity.”