VMS at the Qatar National Day 2009

Austrian company provides the concept for an event in Doha, Qatar with a 6 km Stage.

In collaboration with Qatar’s Innovations Unlimited ME Austrian multi-media company VideoMovingSystem submitted an exceptional concept for Qatar’s National Day 2009. The VMS/IU concept was the winner of a widely-contested three-round competition.

Innovations Unlimited ME (with the Austrian leaders Markus Jordan, Ulf Six and Amr Bela) heads the project, which is based on ideas realized by VideoMovingSystem’s Udo Kapeller, who also provided on-ground technical assistance to the project. Kapeller’s key concept was to have 5000 Doha children draw pictures related to the “desert and sea” event theme. 133 of their children’s drawings were chosen, then converted into large-frame slides that will be projected onto the city’s Commercial Bank tower (100x30 meters) throughout the event. For that reason the Austrian company Context put a special film onto the glass facade of the tower. Other event highlights will include a prize for the best drawing, along with a display of fireworks touted to be the most spectacular in world history on December 18, the actual National Day.

The truly massive spectacle will see the children’s drawings projected onto 40 office towers, the Emir’s palace, government buildings, hotels and public monuments. Another feature is the LED lighting of 500 palm trees organized by the French company Blachère. In addition, Hollywood movie director Peter Webber is the project Art Director. He will co-ordinate four teams of artists – Lichttapete (Austria), Starsky Projection (Austria), Panirama (Germany), and Projektil (Switzerland) in the creative design for the big-frame projections of two films about Qatar that will be shown in different locations around the city, projected onto buildings according to the VMS/IU concept.

Thanks to the cooperation with the companies Pani Projection & Lighting GmbH (A) and Procon Event Engineering GmbH (D) who will provide the beamers and projector for the the 6 km waterfront promenade that is locally called “the Corniche” , the city will be transformed into a continuous 3-D movie screen. This miracle of light would not be possible without an exceptional production team that including Ingo Rehnert (overall production leader, Procon) and Matthias Rau (technical production leader, Procon).

The event is being organized at the request of Qatarian Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who has appointed a specially-formed committee of high-ranking Doha political figures (SNDCOC) to carry out Qatar’s State National Day Celebrations.

Qatar’s National Day activities start December 12. December 16 will be the announcement of the top 133 drawings. A further selection of the 10 best drawings will celebrate the winners on the same day which can be watched live under www.iu-me.com.

The seven-day event will celebrate the identity, history and traditions of the country, support the ideals and foundations of the Qatarian state, which was founded in 1878 by Sheikh Assim Bin Mohammed Bin Thani, and commemorate the men and women who have contributed to building their country.

The planning of this major event took place over ten months. For two months, the participating 20 multimedia-artists worked on the translation of the art work which consists of some 1400 slides. Altogether there are 61 people from Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France and 60 people from Qatar involved in on-site construction. More than 250 tons of lighting material was shipped to Doha for the spectacle, and included 120 skybeamers, 120 kolorado color changers, 50 Mac600, 50 big-frame projectors, 8 big-frame video projectors and about 20 tons of cables.

The project also demonstrates the effort of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani to build the global business relationships that will give his country better opportunities to compete in the global marketplace and to modernize the country. To further this end, the Emir has given up part of his political power and has implemented civil codes. His focus is also on a diversification of the economy that will move it away from its current dependency on the oil and natural gas industries. Thanks to these efforts, Qatar’s economy is booming.