Corporate and Sport
Corporate & Sport
A selection of our projects, past & recent
FIFA World Cup South Africa
The Closing Ceremony for the FIFA 2010 World cup at Soccer City stadium, Soweto, Johannesburg, was the first ever to use large scale video projections in a live show which included a cast of 730 people. It was produced by the VWV Group. The Projection Studio’s Ross Ashton was appointed as projection consultant by Jack Morton Worldwide, who brought their experience of producing large, high profile events to the equation.
Ashton’s role included overseeing the entire projection process through to guiding Johannesburg based content providers, Ministry of Illusion (MOI), to optimise the imagery to work on a monumental scale. This extraordinary show included a herd of life-size elephant puppets, projected newspaper pages peeling back to reveal match footage, a thunder storm of projected rain that eased to reveal a water-hole, deep in the African bush and a Sophiatown gumboot dancing sequence.
The dramatic 55 metre square projections in the middle of the field-of-play maintained varied digital scenery from lakes and mountains to colourful graphics, moving patterns, textures and flag insignia.
This acclaimed Closing Ceremony wrapped up one of the most successful World Cups in great style.
“The plan for the closing ceremony was an infusion of lights, a colourful cast and a musical extravaganza. We are very pleased with the end results and are convinced that our two years of planning and diligent work paid off. Feedback is that the world enjoyed our productions, and our hard working team took honour in producing the events” – Abey Mokgwatsane, CEO of VWV Group
Betfred Super League Final
This unique and exciting Opening Spectacular was created as part of the celebrations surrounding the 2020 Super League Final held at the K-Co stadium in Hull. The event was produced by Event 360 and was made as an arena-scale show for the television audience to help the fans at home feel fully included in the theatrical excitement of the event.
For this spectacular, Ross Ashton insured the projection was mapped onto the seating of the stadium in an unusual design move, using a specially created screen which required special covers during the match itself, operated by an Event 360 team that was drilled to the second to cover and reveal the screen as needed.
The projection was so successful it was also included in the traditional pre-match performance of ‘Jerusalem’ and finally as part of the Cup Presentation celebrations with the winners, along with a celebratory mix of lighting lasers and sound effects.
“After the Betfred Super League Grand Final, it was a joy to read comments such as “its been a great spectacle so far and the match hasn’t started yet”, “Stadium looks brilliant” or as the Guardian On-line described it – ‘The best effort I’ve seen at some pre-match snazz, pizazz and jizz jazz!” – Event 360
BandAid30
With just 24 hours notice, The Projection Studio delivered a full projection design to project the BandAid30 music video onto the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. It was the first time a full motion video has been projected onto this landmark building. TPS’s creative director Ross Ashton received the call on Friday afternoon from Ten Alps, which had received final clearance from Sir Bob Geldof, to make this high-profile event happen on the Sunday evening in front of the world’s press.
Ashton created a map the architecture and produced the final artwork based on the Band Aid video. The facade of the Palace of Westminster that provided the surface for the projection was the official residence of the speaker of the House of Commons. He gave his permission for the event after being approached by Band Aid’s Sir Bob Geldof.
Ashton created a map the architecture and produced the final artwork based on the Band Aid video. The facade of the Palace of Westminster that provided the surface for the projection was the official residence of the speaker of the House of Commons. He gave his permission for the event after being approached by Band Aid’s Sir Bob Geldof.
The projection event helped the the BandAid30 song, “Do They Know Its Christmas (2014)” become that year’s fastest-selling single, notably when it reached more than 312,000 downloads in its first week alone. The high profile nature of the projection event contributed to generating more aid to counteract the devastating Ebola crisis in west Africa that year.
“It was great to work with Ross and his team at The Projection Studio, who once again provided an excellent outcome to a complicated brief – achieved in a very short time frame.” – Des Shaw, Ten Alps
Olympiacos - Light of Hope
On the 19th July, Olympiacos Football Club celebrated their 45th Championship title by winning the Greek Super League Trophy. Director Asteris Kutulas created a double event, taking place inside and outside the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus. The brief was to create the cup presentation event, and to send a message of strength, optimism, perseverance, and hope.
With less than 14 days to put the entire event together, Kutulas reached out to The Projection Studio along with other international experts to facilitate the event alongside the team from Greece.
“The short time scale…meant that we were never going to be able to visit the site. Having such a short time for the creative process meant that there had to be a certain level of trust both on the technical side and the creative process, but we are used to working this way. We quickly worked up a storyboard and we stuck to that. Even though we only had around 8 days for the video creative, we had the full show with them for the dress rehearsal.” – Ross Ashton
“This event was a symbolic act which used art to help overcome the forced distance between people. We wanted to reach hearts and connect people together using bridges made of light. – Asteris Kutalos.
“It took some organising to meet the challenge, and the end result looked great.” – Ross Ashton
Iris Elements Product Launch
Visual branding specialists, Bear Jam were looking for something a little different for this launch, a way to have projection as a backdrop, as lighting, as a performing element, that could integrate with a live human performer, there and then, for a fresh spontaneous approach to video making, in a world where capturing attention is at a premium.
The Projection Studio was able to step in, Ross Ashton’s decades of experience brought not just technical projection hardware and the latest software, but also the necessary creative input that could respond quickly to rolling ideas and experiments there and then in the film shoot.
The preparation of content was vital beforehand. “As well as Bear Jam’s own content, I created and selected elements of my own to help us utilise projection as a flexible creative tool, to focus on the important emotive experience of colour and changing colour on the viewer.
The keyword here for the project was “transform”. The visual had to represent what the product was aiming to do and the projection was used to transform the film set into a hyperreal world of bright rich colour and light. It neutralised the edges of the physical set, helping the visual ‘extend’ beyond those boundaries. We also projected onto the actor himself, mapping imagery for the best effect and impact.
The campaign was hugely successful. Iris Elements went on to win the UK IT Industry Award for ‘Cloud Innovation of the Year’ and the Computing Cloud Award for ‘Cloud Vendor of the Year’ in 2023. It was further shortlisted twice in 2024 and nominated for a further two awards.
Covid - Thank You
The Projection Studio was asked to respond within 48 hours to a phone call from the Royal Borough of Maidenhead requesting a special NHS ‘Thank You’ message projection that the hospital workers would see on their way home each day during the lockdown.
We created the special animated message in the NHS colours of blue and white, to be mapped onto the town hall. We also were able to respond quickly to fully implement Covid-safe health and safety requirements as they existed at that moment, as the situation was one of rapid change.
The entire installation was timed and managed so that all necessary guidance was adhered to, with all people involved never meeting face to face but being able to work in a seamless flow so we could access the projection site, set up and then leave the temporary installation in situ for 4 months.