disguise Brings David Hockney’s Art to Life at Lightroom

disguise Platform Sits at the Heart, Powering 108 Million Pixels to Transport Visitors into the Artist’s Vision

LONDON –March 23, 2023 – Today,disguise announces that it has partnered with London’s Lightroom – a new home for spectacular artist-led experiences in King’s Cross – to power its inaugural art experience by David Hockney. Called David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), the show was designed by 59 Productions, who used disguise’s end-to-end location-based experience solution for everything from pre-visualisation to show control and delivery.

With the venue only open for a month, it has already attracted an average count of over 2000 visitors a day, including radio DJ Lauren Laverne, author Bernardine Evaristo, actor Richard E Grant, and journalists Caitlin Moran and Sali Hughes. David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) takes visitors on a journey through 60 years of the artist’s paintings, digital art and set designs through a 50-minute, large-scale projection show powered by seven disguise vx 4 servers.

In six themed chapters featuring an original score by American composer Nico Muhly and Hockney’s own commentary enabled by the UK’s first fixed Holoplot X1 Matrix Array sound system, Hockney reveals his creative process so visitors can look more closely, truly and joyously at his work.

“disguise is a platform we have been using as a studio for years, so when it came to specifying the hardware for the David Hockney experience, we considered disguise to be the benchmark when it comes to high-performance video playback and projection mapping,” says James Roxburgh, Head of Technical and Production at 59 Productions.

59 Productions created the David Hockney experience using disguise’s advanced software solution Designer to stitch together the content seamlessly across an 108 million pixel canvas that used 29 projectors in the space (14x 4K and 15x HD projectors), having been working on the project for the last four years.

“Working with large video resolutions and playing back 10-bit video were essential components of the system design,” says Roxburgh. “It was also necessary for us to be able to install the system in a very compressed timeline when it came to final delivery”, he added.

Thanks to seven of disguise’s vx 4 media servers, Roxburgh’s team were able to play lossless 10-bit video using each server’s high-performance NVME RAID drive array. That meant Hockney’s art could be accurately displayed across every wall of Lightroom’s space, letting visitors be completely immersed in every brushstroke and shade of colour, while also enabling them to take photos of his work.

“We wanted to be able to accurately present every single detail of David Hockney’s work. This meant being able to playback high-resolution video files, which is perfect for the vx 4. We made use of the Notch LC video codec to playback in full 10-bit colour at 60 fps,” Roxburgh explains. “disguise also provides a multi-user programming environment that enables us to work simultaneously, as a team, on line up, timeline and engineering across the site. As a team we have many years’ experience with disguise, and we continue to trust the platform for our most important projects.”

On the show opening day, the 59 Productions team also counted on disguise’s ability to provide support, ensuring the show ran smoothly and was ready for visitors. “disguise is used to working with high-performance systems, under intense pressure, so we know when we need them they are there to support us,” says Roxburgh. 

“We are proud to partner with Lightroom – a unique, immersive experience that is already drawing in crowds of visitors to its London venue. We are increasingly seeing more venues deliver these immersive experiences worldwide – many of which take advantage of disguise’s unparalleled end-to-end workflow. The David Hockney show is just the beginning and I can’t wait to see what the team at 59 Productions delivers next,” says disguise Chief Experience Officer, Alex Wills.

Learn more

To find out more about the Lightroom partnership and about David Hockney’s show, get in touch with alinem@bubbleagency.com to arrange an interview with the disguise team.

About disguise

disguise has a twenty-year history powering the world’s most spectacular visual experiences including live concerts for artists like Beyonce, location-based experiences like Illuminarium, virtual productions for Netflix and Amazon Prime and extended reality stages for companies like Siemens and Verizon and broadcast coverage for ITV and TUDN. disguise is a production platform delivering the next dimension of visual experiences, bridging the physical and the virtual. Its combination of 3D visualization software, cloud solutions, platform, hardware and services provides creatives and technical teams the ability to realise any creative vision – no matter the complexity.

Recognised by the Financial Times as a 2022 Tech hero and as the recipients of an Engineering, Science and Technology Emmy, disguise has recently announced new majority backing from investment firm Carlyle Group, with Epic Games taking a minority stake. For more information, please visit www.disguise.one.

SCROLL POSTS

A Few Kind Words...

Kapil Gadhire, Head of Marketing, Magnifi

From the word go, team Bubble was super detailed, efficient, and exhaustive in their approach. They are true partners and make an effort to understand the ideology and end goal to plan the perfect media pitch and strategy.

Lauren Myers, Director, Integrated Marketing – Ross Video

Working with Bubble during and after IBC 2022 for PR and press support was exceptional. Their professional approach, strategic communication, and extensive media network generated significant exposure for our brand. Bubble's on-site support was outstanding, ensuring our story was accurately told to a global audience. Their post-IBC efforts further amplified our reach and provided valuable analytics. An experienced, professional team and a total joy to work with.

Andrew McKinlay, Marketing Director, Avolites

All amazing, just grateful I know I can rely on Bubble to get the job done brilliantly.

Tanya Rai, Marketing and Communications Manager, Pebble

Team Bubble are an extension of our own team. They are wonderful to work with, reliable, get the job done and gain great exposure for our business in key publications.

Mike Ward, Head of Marketing, Singular.live

Since we first started working with them, our team at Bubble have acted very much like an extension of our team. They work with us to try and help us achieve our goals and we very much feel that they have our interests at heart as well as having our backs when we need it!

Gavin Bunker, AE Live

Bubble were fantastic throughout the whole process and helped us deliver a successful event to celebrate our 30th corporate anniversary with industry peers.

Robert Cloudt, Synchronized

Bubble has been tremendously helpful to bring our marketing communication to the next level, very responsive and thinking with us together on the rightful messaging and timing across different media’s. Definitely a recommendation in case you need a well balanced media agency to help you out.

Carla Molina Whyte, Farmerswife

Working with Bubble Agency for a tradeshow has been truly amazing. The bubble team is incredibly helpful and talented. We are very happy with the results and with all the coverage we got prior and during the tradeshow!

Silvia Candido, Ateme

As usual, we were super busy before and during a tradeshow this year. What a luxury to have Bubble take care of our media relations and our social media accounts! We saw a surge of followers on LinkedIn and got good coverage in a number of publications.

Meg Travis, Iron Mountain Entertainment Services, Director, Global Head of Marketing & Communications, Entertainment Services

The Bubble team made everything easy at MPTS! From advising before the show, to facilitating client and press conversations during the show, to making recommendations on how to make the most of the connections we made there - we rely on Bubble as a key strategic partner for our sales and marketing teams.