Our System
At Goddess Projections, we use a proprietary setup that we have built from scratch. This includes our software, Video Goddess, along with a fleet of lightweight projectors and Mini PCs that we're able to control wirelessly.
Video Goddess
We wrote a websocket-based application called Video Goddess that sits at the core of our system.
Goddess is able to control dozens of projectors over a private LAN, and has very low bandwidth requirements -- it was built with quick, lightweight, WiFi driven setups in mind.
Instead of streaming all of the video content to the projectors, Goddess will pre-download all required videos on each projector in the beginning of a show. Once the pre-download is complete, the server is able to simply send lightweight control signals to each projector's attached Mini PC, and they will immediately play their videos without any lag or buffering.
All of our videos have multiple tags related to their content (for example, flowers, pink, etc...). We can turn any one of these tags into a preset, and when activated, all projectors will only show videos containing that preset's tag.
Video Goddess supports two modes:
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Chill Mode: a more relaxing mode that simply plays videos and gently fades between them. It can show a video in each small tile, or a large video across several tiles.
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Groovy Mode: a higher-energy mode, intended to be played with music. You can set a BPM to tightly sync it up with whatever's playing. This mode will involve colored flashes, scaling the videos up/down with the beat, and other energetic effects.
Hardware
For our events, we use a large fleet of lightweight mini-projectors, driven by HDMI stick PCs that we attach to the projectors. The combined weight of the projector + PC is less than 1.5lbs, which drastically simplifies mounting.
We have a variety of equipment and techniques for mounting our projectors to allow us to setup in almost any situation and leave no trace when we're done. These include magnets, pipe clamps, bar clamps, and more. We keep short-throw and standard-throw projectors in stock, allowing us flexibility with our mounting positions.
The projectors use very little power (typically around 30 watts, less than a lightbulb), but put out a bright image for their size. They plug into a standard edison outlet, and we can run many off of a single power drop. As mentioned above, they are controlled wirelessly, so there's no need for long HDMI cable runs to a central machine.
For permanent or larger-scale installations, we can use larger, more powerful projectors. We're also able to re-use any projectors or screens already in a venue by hooking up our HDMI stick PCs to them.
Projection Surfaces
We can project onto any surface in your space. The magic of projection mapping lies in conforming to the existing architecture as much as possible, such that it almost looks like there are screens built into the space.
Lighter, rectangular surfaces work best, but we can get creative to match the needs of the space. We have projected onto lockers, brick walls, moulded panels, pillars, and more.
If needed, we can also use a series of white panels (approx 2ft x 4ft) to create more surfaces in the space. These can be hung from tripods, suspended from a ceiling or lighting rack, or fastened to wall.
