The festival is the main event of the video mapping industry in Europe, particularly in the Haute-de-France region. The event is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and a number of regional institutions. This year, it took off in Lille in April to showcase 25 creations within the video mapping tour in the city center. The festival’s final port of call is Amiens in October 2023.
The event has a multifaceted goal, which includes
- Generating reference data to enable understanding of the industry’s development
- Fostering talents and supporting artists in their career pursuits
- Attracting investments into the industry
- Encouraging public encounters with video mapping, developing cultural events and education around the medium
- Facilitating networking among peers and stakeholders.
Within the frames of the festival programme, the Image Beyond the Screen International Conference (IBSIC) is held. This is an international event highlighting the video mapping industry’s evolution.
videomappingfestival.com
Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles, the ardent promoter of the video mapping arts and technology based in the Haute-de-France region, is the founder of the Video Mapping Festival and enthusiastic inspirer and the host of IBSIC. At IBSIC, Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles holds panel discussions, highlights the latest research, presents case studies, and connects leaders and artists of the sector.
Founded in 1998, Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles has always been into the arts and technology of imagery. The association actively supports and promotes video mapping technology in Europe. Every year, Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles holds more than 100 activities, including mapping shows, workshops, and dedicated festivals for more than 350 000 spectators and attendees. Over the years, this non-profitable organization has built up a video mapping community, which embraces artists and engineers from across the globe. Each year, more than 350 image professionals take part in video mapping, workshops, and conferences held by Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles.
As a dedicated promoter of video mapping in the Haute-de-France region, Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles educates the public, creates multiple jobs, and drives regional tourism.
Initially, the association rented equipment from technology providers. Back in 2018, Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles first tried rental Lightware’s MODEX fiber optic modular extenders. The boxes worked perfectly; the engineers of Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles really appreciated them.
With the growth of the initiatives, the organization made a smart investment into its own gear. Based on their positive experience with rental devices, Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles acquired 8 units of MODEX modular extenders (fiber optic to DVI) and several EDID Manager V4 units.
With Lightware optical extenders, Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles engineers enable the transmission of video and audio signals from the media server to projectors over distances up to 150 meters. They use Lightware’s technology in various projection mapping installations indoors and outdoors, sometimes exposing the boxes to harsh environmental conditions and regularly coping with tough and tight schedules of live events. Lightware extenders honorably meet the challenges. The devices demand no costly maintenance and care. They allow the delivery of immersive projection onto the magnificent walls of medieval churches and castles, beautiful town halls, theatres, and other spectacular locations.
Being well familiar with plenty of signal management technologies, Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles’ engineers appreciate MODEX's unrivaled features and characteristics, such as:
- Zero latency and zero disruption to the live signal
- Reliable and solid hardware and simple, functional design
- EDID Management, which ensures video signal transmission at the right ratio/definition
- Audio signal transmission
- Intuitive configuration via the interface and the dedicated application
For their multiple events across the globe, Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles regularly outsource technicians. Temporary engineers and students at IBSIC’s trainings and workshops, grasp Lightware’s technology in no time. They love its plug-and-play philosophy.
Aurélien Wojtko, Video Engineer and Visual Artist of Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles says:
Lightware's equipment fully meets our expectations. It corresponds exactly to our technical needs in the field for our magnificent projection mapping!
Lightware’s HDMI/DVI EDID emulator and repeater EDID Manager V4 allows Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles to secure the EDID on their installations, always within the framework of their projection mapping events. When they run in-house testing and simulation on external graphics cards, the device is used to simulate video outputs with EDID characteristics.
In their office, Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles run Lightware’s switching technology. Mr. Wojtko says Lightware’s corporate solutions show the same consistency in providing advanced and reliable signal management technology as they do for the challenging requirements of video mapping live events.
We at Lightware are excited that our time-tested technology performs flawlessly in the rapidly evolving sector of video mapping. With the aspiration to offer top-notch AV signal extension solutions, we push the boundaries of innovation. Today, we are delighted to offer our latest award-winning AV-over-IP technology presented by UBEX, OPTC, and OPTJ fiber optic series of extenders. These products have successfully been tested by numerous ambitious projects across the world.
