How to Create Custom Projection Headers on a Budget

Rose Brand Constructed The Headers With Boost Fabric

Rose Brand congratulates our fourth blog contest winner, the team at InOvation Group. Their blog entry described how they built a projection header and “Chinese Lantern” balls on a tight budget for the First Bank Center Arena in Broomfield, Colorado. Here is how THEY did it...

Project Description – InOvation Group was approached in January of 2010 by AEG Live and Kroenke Sports Enterprise to design and supply a VERY large custom projection header piece for use in the new First Bank Center Arena in Broomfield, Colorado. The project budget was fairly tight, and the delivery date was also short. The project also asked for the design and supply of three sets of 3 large “Chinese lantern” balls, which could change color and have custom designs applied to the surface to provide a silhouette look.

Design Challenge – The header size (132’ in width x 43’ at tallest point) had to be installed and/or struck with a minimum crew, little or no ground support lifts, and due to budget constraints, would not allow for a typical structure for stretching projection material – also standard projection material was out of the budget range. Much the same budget constraints for the clusters of “Chinese Lanterns,” although these would be permanently mounted in the venue and so did not have to take the install/strike wear and tear of the projection header.

Solutions and Materials – Projection Header - Inovation Group's Production staff , along with their designers (Gordon and Jean Robertson), as well as the AEG designer (Jeremy Stein) and installers discussed several ideas, and finally arrived at this: construct out of a resilient material, which will act as close to a projection surface as possible (Boost fabric by Rose Brand), use a hinged truss that would allow us to lower it to ground level, tie the fabric on along the top and begin flying it out and simultaneously tying in weighted pipe sections (with custom bends and joints) to custom pipe pockets along the bottom and outside edges (Click on the PDF file to see installation drawings). They took the very simple concept of weighting a cyc or drop, using gravity to put tension into the material to produce a smooth taut surface for projection.

First Bank Center Projection Header installation 2-1-10.pdf (169.43 kb)

Rose Brand constructed the header from pattern drawings and collaboration with the Robertsons – the final project, even allowing for the tested and calculated stretch of the Boost fabric, came to within one foot of original dimensions!!!

“Chinese Lanterns” - Our design team of Jean and Gordon Robertson came up with a simple custom structure (which could be assembled on site). Jean works very well in 3-D CADD and designed and stitched the Boost fabric coverings – which were applied on site as well. Internally, an inexpensive 3 color LED rope light string is used – controlled by a DMX to analog convertor, allowing each of the 9 balls to be controlled separately by the control system. At a second design sign off meeting, Jean designed the wonderful Art Deco animal designs, and produced patterns for (again 3-D AutoCAD), hand cut and stitched all of the Deco silhouettes to the fabricated Boost sheaths.

The Result? – See the accompanying pictures and imagine being able to project anything on a huge 135’x42’ screen (uses 3 projectors) and be able to tie the overall Arena “ Room” together via the colors glowing from the giant Chinese Lanterns. The results are spectacular, meeting and exceeding expectations.

Rose Brand is accepting applications for the How Did YOU Do It? Blog Contest until April 25, 2011. For a chance to have YOUR work featured on Rose Brand's Blog, simply post an explanation of your project and a representative picture or video on our Face Book Page. In your explanation, indicate which Rose Brand products you used, if any. If you end up as a contest winner, you'll also receive a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate and a link to your blog article from the homepage of our e-commerce site at RoseBrand.com. It's a chance for exposure to tens of thousands of people in our industry.