London 2012 olympic and paralympic opening and closing ceremonies: audience pixel content

ABSTRACT

While the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of each successive Olympic Games have tended to grow increasingly sophisticated in their scope and scale, a key ambition of the London 2012 Ceremonies team was to integrate the in-stadium audience as part of the show, emphasising the narrative themes of inclusiveness and togetherness. Furthermore, the large size of an Olympic stadium can make it harder to create an intimate and immersive live experience for the stadium audience. In response, 70,500 audience seats in the stadium were fitted with a 9-LED pixel paddle, all of which were wired to a central visual controller. The result was an enormous immersive display that holds the current world-record for the largest landscape video display. Live equipment company Tait Technology designed and installed the tablets, known as the Audience Pixels, while software designers Immersive provided the 37 Ai Servers that controlled the LEDs. Digital media studio Crystal CG created all 14 hours of Audience Pixels content for the Olympic & Paralympic Opening & Closing Ceremonies, and an intensive period of creative and technical R&D was required to get the best out of the innovative display.