Green Hippo

GLAMORGAN UNIVERSITY – END OF YEAR PROJECT: The sensory Garden

GLAMORGAN UNIVERSITY – END OF YEAR PROJECT: The sensory Garden

Green Hippo has always been very proud to support educational projects and up-and-coming talents within the industry and April’s end of year project at Glamorgan University was no exception.

Working with the course professors Rob Locke and Stuart Green from the BSc (Hons) Live Event Technology degree, Green Hippo’s Head of Training and Education Simon Harris provided extensive tutoring and support to a group of students who welcomed the chance to use a Hippotizer for their project. Considering this affiliation Rob Locke remarks:

“The University’s relationship with Green Hippo was essential to this project which would not have been possible without the support of Simon and Nick, and we look forward to further collaboration in the future.”

Erica Frost and five of her fellow students were given the brief to design an “interactive sensory garden” for their final end of year project. This unique event was a first for the course as the planning and programming of interactive sound, lighting and video was not something taught or discussed as part of the course.

Rob Locke recognises that: “The brief for the Sensory Garden project was designed to stretch the final year Lighting and Live Event Technology students’ understanding and practical application of all the material they had learned over the past three years. The Garden required innovation and adaptation to produce an interesting and interactive experience.”

Held at the Ty Crawshay Garden at Glamorgan University the group, called Enteract, had high ambitions for this project, as Erica explains:

“We researched how we could make light, sound and video interactive in ways that went beyond just pushing faders and buttons.”

The initial idea revolved around a bedtime theme, creating a relaxing dreamscape within the garden, including stars in the trees and hot chocolate.

Using a Hippotizer Stage media server, Erica managed to find hardware and software which enabled them to convert analogue and digital signals from a variety of sensors into MIDI and OSC messages. These messages could then be picked up by Green Hippo’s Hippotizer and the university’s Pharos LPC1 unit.

The group managed to successfully secure equipment from various sources, giving them the opportunity to forge connections and work with some of the best companies in the business. The equipment included:

courtesy of the University

·         We-wf lights

·         Bega Luminaires

·         SGM LED Colour Changers

·         Philips architectural lighting

·         Pharos LPC1

·         Wireless solution transmitter and receiver

courtesy of Green Hippo Ltd

·         Hippotizer Stage media server

courtesy of Magnum PA

·         100v Line System

courtesy of MJ Lights

·         extra power cables, splitters & adapters

courtesy of Pulsar

·         Chroma Floods

courtesy of Steim

·         JunXion software, a free 4 months license covering the duration of the project

courtesy of TMB

·         Lumen Radio

Other equipment included Arduino controller boards, a USB webcam and a video camera.

 The student devised several set-ups for the project, which started immediately when visitors walked up the steps to the garden. The group had spread out motion sensors in the shrubs beside the steps and picking up the movement from people walking up the stairs the sensors send signals  via a laptop to the 100v line system in the trees, creating the sound of the ‘Talking Trees’ around the garden.

Walking onto the lawn visitors were able to investigate video projections on the main white tepee in the middle of the garden. Initially Erica and her fellow students had planned to create an extensive bedtime setting using a double bed at its centre with a canvas above for visitors to watch projections while lying on the bed and triggering various dream sequences depending on which sensor they activated.

However, on the slopping lawn of the Ty Crawshay Garden it was not practical to install a bed with a canvas suspended above it, so the decision was made to set up a tepee onto which the various dream sequences could be projected. This was no mean feat as the garden backs straight onto a main road and Erica and her classmates had to ensure that none of the traffic was distracted and send of the road by the diffused light.

Using a USB webcam as the “sensory input” for the Hippotizer, they programmed various parts of the camera so that movement in the right side of the camera would trigger a different timeline in the server than movement in the left side of the camera. The JunXion software received the triggers from the webcam, and in turn sent MIDI signals to the Hippotizer, which took care of all the video projection and provided the media representing dream sequences. A timer within the JunXion software ensured that over the course of the evening different timelines were triggered.

Describing the project’s technical objectives and outcome, Rob explaines: “As the evening passed from dusk to dark the emphasis of the show changed from sound to light. By using a Hippotizer the audience was able to select different video clips as part of the performance. A combination of cameras and sensors were used to trigger the Hippotizer to different points along its Timeline program. The overall effect was visually stunning. The outcome was three evenings of interactive music, sound, light and video projection controlled by infrared, visible light and proximity detectors in Ty Crawshay Garden on Glamorgan’s Trefforest campus.”

Managing the interactive lighting was the ’flowerboard’ placed under the column at the top of the garden. A concept developed by the students, it incorporated two Arduino control boards under its surface and walking across images of flowers the visitors triggered digital signals which were transmitted to the Pharos LPC1 unit. Subsequently the Pharos turned these signals into DMX which were then transmitted to the Chroma Floods, using a wireless Lumen Radio, and changing their colours in the four tepees. The colour of the light depended on the picture that the visitors stepped on.

The project enabled visitors to experience changes in lighting, projection and sound through their interaction with the system, simply by moving around or touching specific sensors in the garden.

Being held in the open front garden of the campus the project managed to attract a good deal of attention. Passers-by were able to watch the display, walk in and try the various set-up themselves, while asking questions and finding out about the premise of the project. Despite a little rain on their last day the group’s project turned out a glowing success impressing their professors and visitors alike and we are very glad to have been able to support their efforts and look forward to doing so again with future Glamorgan students, as Simon Harris confirms:

“Green Hippo are very proud to be associated with Glamorgan University especially seeing the quality of students they produce. This year’s end of year productions were paramount to the great work Stuart and Rob are doing there and we look forward to a productive future for all parties, the University, Green Hippo and most importantly the students.”