The Disney Event Group

CASE STUDY – DISNEY EVENT GROUP TRANSITIONS OPTICAL
Written by: Tara Crary

Website: https://www.disneymeetingsandevents.com/

By collaborating with the magic-makers at Disney Event Group, Transitions Optical, the manufacturer of the #1 eyecare professional-recommended photochromic lenses worldwide, had their vision taken to the next level through an imaginative series of events, utilizing multi-media technologies designed to evoke the imagination and inspiration of the 1,400 Transitions Academy event attendees.

The Transitions Academy event took place at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resort, January 31 through February 2, 2010 and was billed as an education and networking opportunity for Transitions’ lab partners. The event’s theme of “Limitless Imagination” was announced on opening night by Dave Cole, Transitions’ general manager of the Americas.

Limitless imagination was also the underlying theme and inspiration of Disney Event Group, who challenged convention and pushed the limits of already cutting edge technology to design and implement multi-media feats that had never before been accomplished.

Disney Event Group’s conceptualization of the Transitions Academy event began in October of 2009. With the vision of seasoned Producer, Rick Barranco and experienced Show Director, Ken Malquist, a dream team of Disney’s top multi-media artists was assembled, under the leadership of Disney’s Creative Media team, led by Tony Merrell, Dave Yoder and Mark Hughes. Hand selecting top talent, whose accolades include work on numerous Disney motion pictures and feature films, Paitoon Ratan, Jeff Peak, Jacobus Van den Ancker, Lee Stansbury, Wes Kandel, Megan Imirie, Cathy Mathews, Day Delatorre, Alan Weems and Matt Cameron put their collaborative skills and talents together to create what became the world’s largest projection screen and 3D animation, custom designed to meet the size requirements of the projection screen.

The final product of countless hours of strategic vision, extreme dedication, careful preparation and unsurpassed creativity by the Disney Event Group team generated many industry firsts on the Transitions Academy event. The 315’ x 20’ projection screen broke a Guinness Book record by a resounding 100 feet to become the world’s largest indoor projection screen. Putting this into perspective, that equates to two and a half times the size of an IMAX screen and is 15 feet longer than a football field.

The size of the projection screen was not the only record breaker that this project yielded. The animation was created at a resolution of 13,729 x 728 pixels, generating imagery comparable to the movie, Avatar and resulting in 1 terabyte of total rendered data, making the images seemingly come alive. The Transitions Academy event project also broke the world record for the number of projectors used to showcase the animation, utilizing a total of 16 state-of-the-art projection units.

The breathtaking imagery that generated such file sizes and accomplished such multi-media feats included a life-like Academy Awards set and backdrop with moving curtains and other elements, used for the Transitions Academy Lab of the Year Awards ceremony. A “flying through the clouds” sequence, tantamount to the popular Epcot ride, Soarin’, a virtual land made up entirely of gum drops and respective underwater schemes, crawling bugs, butterflies, giant crayons and paint swoosh sequences also made the attendees marvel as it drove the “Limitless Imagination” theme home.

To complement the multi-media elements of the production, an 18 piece orchestra, 50 person choir, two comedic Masters of Ceremony, 5 solo vocalists and renowned artist Erik Wahl all performed in sync to the respective animation sequences, creating a truly magical experience that brought the Transitions Optical event theme and vision to life and added to the many groundbreaking accomplishments of Disney Event Group.