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May 2020


Water Screen Projection – How We Created the World’s Largest Water Screen

Water Screen Projection

Used for live entertainment, larger than life storytelling, immersive advertising and unique special events, Water Screen Projection is an innovative entertainment medium that LASERVISION has been perfecting for more than 30 years. While our proprietary water screens are some of the largest in the industry, we definitely outdid ourselves in 2017 when we created and set the Guinness World Record for “Largest Water Screen Projection” for the ‘IMAGINE’ attraction at Dubai Festival City Mall. After 3 years of continuous operation, let’s take a look at what it takes to create a record-setting tourism attraction and how our creative and technical teams created one of the world’s best water, light and sound shows!

‘IMAGINE’

Launched in December of 2016, the ‘IMAGINE’ – Water, Fire and Light Show has become one of Dubai’s shining beacons and highly trafficked tourism destinations. Commissioned by Al-Futtaim Group Real Estate(AFGRE) to design, create, install and maintain the 360-degree spectacular, LASERVISION set two Guinness World Records in the process of creating the tourism solution that has made Dubai Festival City Mall what it is today. The technology-filled and reprogrammable venue is primarily set in the beautiful waterfront of Festival Bay where the record Water Screen projection, dancing fountains, flame effects and water technologies are the main focus. The record-setting projection mapping solution is projected onto the iconic Intercontinental Hotel and a multitude of lighting, LASER and audio technologies are throughout the Festival Bay grounds. These technologies all culminate to form a 360-degree entertainment experience that allows for IMAGINE’s nightly signature shows, beautiful dancing fountain shows, LASER shows, calendar events and national celebrations, as well as many promotional and advertising opportunities.

 

Behind the Scenes of the World’s Largest Water Screen

At a screen size of almost 900 square-metres, the main audience water screen projection at Dubai Festival City’s ‘IMAGINE’ towers over the audience at a staggering 20 metres tall and is the perfect medium to create larger-than-life effects and ethereal storytelling elements. Used as the main projection and visual storytelling surface, the main water screen is accompanied by three additional water screens on the north and south side audience viewing areas. These incredible water screens allow for over 10,000 people to gather and feel completely immersed in the shows at ‘IMAGINE.’

The water screens, a patented design by LASERVISION, are some of the most optically stable screens in the world, allowing for bright and crisp imagery to be rear-projected onto the surface. But all that screen real estate would be for nought if it wasn’t for the incredible amounts of water that needed to be precisely pumped through the massive system. Enter the “brains” of the operation and where our water technologies begin their journey through the 60,000 square metre waterbody of Festival Bay—the centrepiece.

 

 

 

The centrepiece is a bespoke, 34-metre floating media control platform positioned in the centre of the Festival Bay, weighs over 800 tonnes and is the main focal point of the attraction. This iconic element;

  • houses several control systems for water, fire and lighting technologies
  • is the main location for our water technology’s pumps, filtration, sanitisation, and control systems
  • contains many of the LASERs and Panasonic Projectors used on the Water Screens
  • is a base of operations for our maintenance team and show operators
  • Dynamically adjusts to tide variations ensuring show consistency
  • Supports the 2 kilometres of custom-built, marine-grade fountain structures
  • features a hydraulic lifting system that lowers and raises the structure vertically by 2 metres for activation in shows.

 

LASERVISION IMAGINE Water Screen Install Team Photo

The LASERVISION Engineering, Technical and Install Team on the IMAGINE Site.

 

Creating a world-record-setting water screen is not just challenging from an engineering aspect, but developing creative content that is grand enough for the largest water screen in the world was a big achievement for the LASERVISION creative team. Our award-winning creative team created two fanciful and image-rich narratives for ‘IMAGINE’, Stardancer and A Child’s Dream, launched in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The record water screen was perfect to tell the larger than life stories that were created by the team. It created the perfect screen to tell the stories with a classic narrative style, while also seamlessly blending and expanding around the venue with all of the other entertainment technologies. The programming of all the elements in the bay, as well as the Intercontinental Hotel’s Projection mapping and hundreds of LED lighting and special effects, are a sight to behold. To read more about the incredible journey of the creative team and see the inner workings of what kind of fun we get up to in the studio, check out our page dedicated to the creative team at LASERVISION and their amazing creation of IMAGINE.

 

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It took over 4 years of design and technical engineering to develop the record-setting attraction that is now ‘IMAGINE’, as well as a full year of installation and programming to get the shows zeroed in such a spectacular and record-setting performance not seen anywhere else in the world. You can still see the magnificent ‘IMAGINE’ attraction and all of the amazing show offerings our creative and engineering teams are so proud of and we consider one of our favourite projects. For more information about visiting ‘IMAGINE,’ you can visit Dubai’s Festival City Mall’s website for current schedules.

The Versatility of Water Screens

Although ‘IMAGINE’ may be the crowning jewel of our water screen technology, we continue to innovate and use water screen projection in so many of our shows and events around the world. From the Sydney Olympics through to shows at Six Flags, Marina Bay Sands, bespoke special events, and international film festivals, the versatility of water screens to create magical and holographic-like imagery can be utilised in many settings to create incredible special effects, gigantic presentations, advertising spaces and cinematic experiences.

 

LASER Projection Water Screen

A Brilliant Effect of LASER Combined with Projection on a LASERVISION Water Screen

 

LASERVISION water screens are designed to work in both saltwater or freshwater environments, come in several sizes, and can be used for permanent installations as well as special events, celebrations, and calendar and corporate events. Water screens are the perfect projection surface for high definition video as well as LASER graphics and beam shows and can be used stand-alone, in a water screen array or with other media and entertainment technologies.

 

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LASERVISION Water Screens are perfect for advertising and product launches. The unique medium is a real show stopper and attention grabber.

 

Our water screen technology can be incorporated into smaller water bodies or even artistic sculptures, such as our innovative and bespoke sculptured water screen at Reem Central Park’s multimedia sculpture fountain.

 

Reem Central Park - A Day at the Seaside Water Screen

LASERVISION’s Iconic ‘Wave’ sculpture fountain with integrated water screen at Reem Central Park, Abu Dhabi, UAE

 

 

 

 

 

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