Christie at unveiling of Lufthansa logo

From yellow to white – the most famous crane in the history of air travel got a new coat of paint for its 100th birthday. During an event attended by over 3,000 guests at Frankfurt Airport to present the new company logo, Christie® Pandoras Box ensured the perfect feed for a very large projection mapping onto a Boeing 747-800, the first aircraft in the Lufthansa fleet with the new design.

​It is exactly 100 years since Otto Firle designed the famous crane symbol for the Deutsche Luft-Reederei DLR, the predecessor airline to Lufthansa. That's reason enough for the company to give a glimpse into Lufthansa's history and bring the logo into the digital age. The result was unveiled at Frankfurt Airport at an event featuring the motto "Explore the new." In the Lufthansa A380 hangar, visitors experienced a spectacular 3D projection mapping onto a Boeing 747-800, the first aircraft of the fleet to bear the new design.

The show and the content for the large projection were designed and produced by Stein Communication GmbH. The entire concept, consisting of the video mapping with corresponding light and sound effects, a 600-square meter LED sky, soundscapes and various interactive elements, impressed the audience greatly. "The content of the 20-minute video show on the aircraft was produced completely in 3D. The video installation designed completely from scratch for the architecture of the aeroplane hangar was certainly a highlight for the guests," explains Matthias Vogel, Managing Director of Stein Communication GmbH.

To provide technical support, Stein Communication brought Christie partner pixl evolution Ltd. on board, under the supervision of Patrick Verhey, Director of Creative Media. The video and media server experts from the British company were responsible for planning and consulting for the entire 3D workflow, server environment and mapping. For the content feed, they opted for Christie Pandoras Box.

Setup in record time thanks to Christie Pandoras Box V6.1
"The most critical element of this project was the extremely short preparation time," recalls Verhey. "The Boeing was only on the ground for a short time and had to go back into service directly after the event." As the hangar was flooded with light during the day, Verhey and his colleagues Wadim Wall and Craig Harrower had to get the setup for the 3D mapping up and running in a record time of less than ten hours.

Pandoras Box V6.1 played a key role in making this happen, including reducing work steps: "Thanks to the Pandoras Box V6 multi-user setup and new warping workflow, we were able to work on 3D mapping, warping settings and soft edge with three workstations in parallel," says Verhey. This generated time savings of 50 to 60 percent compared with the previous version workflow. In this version of Pandoras Box, the whole thing is integrated into the user interface and we can cut out several work steps," explained Verhey.

As well, in the warping workflow a 3D laser measuring device was used to determine the position of the aircraft in relation to the projectors and to measure the opening angle of the projectors.

The fine tuning took place with the multi-user session on three laptops, which allowed the employees to move freely in front of the aircraft. "Two people started in the middle of the plane at the same time and worked their way to the left and right," continues Verhey. Directly afterwards, the third person then set up the soft edge areas that had already been warped. The result could be checked immediately with the ready-programmed timeline.

The 12 Pandoras Box Quad Servers and two Pandoras Box Managers Unlimited were interconnected with a 10GB network for faster file transfer and fed all 24 projectors. Six Quad servers provided 24 independent video streams to the projectors while six backup servers provided the same images, ensuring full redundancy. For the sound, several audio tracks were played over two RME audio cards on the two Pandoras Box Managers.

Unforgettable photo opportunity with Christie Pandoras Box Widget Designer
No event is complete without a personal souvenir: At the Lufthansa event at Frankfurt Airport, the guests were treated to a very special souvenir. After the unveiling of the logo, the "Lufthansa & Me Photo Promotion" was nearby to take a photo of guests who wanted to have their own name projected onto the aircraft. With a newly created Widget Designer interface and a tablet, guests' names were entered and displayed on the plane in real-time.

Challenge successfully completed
​​"Despite the extremely short preparation time given the scope and size of the technology installed, the event was a complete success as evident on the beaming faces of the guests," reported Matthias Vogel from Stein Communication at the close of the show.

Patrick Verhey was in complete agreement: "We are very happy to have been part of this unique project. The popularity of the photo promotion really took us by surprise. Pretty much every guest wanted to have a souvenir photo of themselves and the plane with their name on it. Some of them were prepared to wait for a really long time." The event ran longer as a result of the photo promotion. Fortunately, the maiden flight with the new design en route to Toronto was still able to take off on time.

All photos provided by courtesy of:
© Stein Communication GmbH