TheaterMax at Østre Gasværk Theater
Østre Gasværk Theater is located in Copenhagen and the building was originally built as a gas works in 1878 and was used as such until 1961. In 1979 the building was converted into a theater and opened as Østre Gasværk Theater in 1982. The theater is known for its special atmosphere and raw , industrial settings that provide a unique backdrop for the theater performances. At the same time, the unique setting is also what creates the challenge when producing theatre. In a traditional theater room, you can hide things away on the side stage and backstage as well as in a stage tower. At Øregasværk this is not possible as the room is open and the audience has a 180 degree view.
With the accession of Søren Møller as new theater director at the beginning of 2022, a new exciting concept, called Theater Max, was born. Instead of creating traditional theatre, where you try to hide things away, Søren Møller wanted to transform the gasworks into a huge, self-closing canvas, where sound, light, video and acoustics helped to transform the space into a 180 degree field of vision .
We, at Stouenborg, have been involved in the project from the very beginning of the idea to the complete installation of the entire projector system for TheatreMax. The system contains 25 projectors, which together deliver content in 11K format, which is more than twice as large as what cinemas show today. The finished installation can cover the entire walls and ceiling of the theater with creative content, which for the first performance is primarily used for scenographic animations.
One of the challenges of the TheatreMax project was that we had to design the entire system off site, as it had to be ready to be installed in a very short period of time. Therefore, we used an IFC model in BIM to find out where the project rods should be hung in a 3D room. This tool played an important role in the process as it helped us calculate the locations of the complete installation, thus enabling our installers to integrate the system in just 5 days.
From previous projects, we knew that it was impossible to set up 25 projectors without the audience being distracted by the noise from the fans in the projectors, and therefore we have also produced 25 projector noise boxes of our own design. These specially designed boxes make it possible to remove the noise from the projectors while allowing them to get air so they don't overheat. Furthermore, the projectors had to hang at a 45 degree angle on the rig, and therefore we also produced all the brackets for the 25 projectors and their noise boxes ourselves.
In the past, we have also been involved in a project for Absalon Kulturhus, which you can read more about here.
