Large format projection specialists E\T\C London returned to Malta to project onto Fort St. Angelo in Valetta Harbor for the opening ceremony of the HotelPlan conference. Working for the Malta Tourist Authority and the Malta Fairs & Convention Center (MFCC), the event was staged for 250 invited guests.

E\T\C London has worked in Malta several times, designing and coordinating large format projection shows, including for the Welcome Malta celebrations in 2004, when 10 new member states joined the EU.

For this latest project, E\T\C UK’s Ross Ashton was commissioned by Maltese production company Sign-It to create a special 15-minute narrative illustrating the history of Malta from its discovery 6,000 years ago to the present. Ashton researched, wrote, and produced the storyboard and originated all the artwork. The soundtrack was edited by Karen Monid. E\T\C projected a massive distance of 5,382 feet (500 meters) across Valletta Harbor onto the Fort St. Angelo from the projector position located at the Old Customs House.

E\T\C used eight 6kW PIGI projectors with double rotating scrollers, all overlaid to optimize the image brightness, complete with special Barco 125cm lenses. The image was divided into two halves, with four machines covering each half, soft edged together using E\T\C’s proprietary OnlyCue software, which was also used to program and run the shows. The OnlyCue programmers were Karen Monid and Erlwin de Gans, with support from Chris Richardson and Ewan Guichard.

Sign-It were also heavily involved with the Welcome Malta show. The projections onto Fort St. Angelo proved to be such a great hit that Sign-It’s MD Ruben Caruana wants to repeat the spectacle as-and-when the opportunities arise for more people to enjoy. “Projection makes such a bold, dramatic statement and is hugely entertaining,” he states.

Ashton comments, “It was a great privilege to be asked back to Malta again, and also to produce a show from scratch, undertaking all elements of the process in-house.”