Cirque du Soleil SamaSama Staff of Light

Wireless DMX Staff of Light
SamaSama Staff of Light
Customer: Sama Sama Live Experience for Cirque du Soleil
Model design & assembly: Mickey Martin
Model design &; Electronics & Software: Rafael Mizrahi
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwNyiC5VPzg&index=1&list=PLQcLab8aGpjNx9kzF9ajrv1obNjXgDUik

WDMX case study http://wirelessdmx.com/news/cirque-du-soleil-sama-sama-live-experience-enabled-with-w-dmx
Wireless Solution recently participated in the performance Sama-Sama – Live Experience for Cirque du Soleil. The project invites the audience to immerse themselves in a parallel universe where they will follow the story of a mysterious community known as the Samis, who have built a unique space for creativity and inspiration, bringing people together through the joy of creation in a way never experienced before. They call this place Sama-Sama, which means “together” in Filipino.
The Samis (performers) danced and sang in the middle of the crowd holding and juggling a long light pole, designed by interactive experience’s designers Rafael Mizrahi and Mickey Martin – the object was made of telescopic aluminium poles and 3D printed plastic parts, making it lightweight for the performers. “Wireless Solutions provided the most reliable Wireless technology, and the fastest to communicate with the lighting in such a crowded radio environment” says Mizrahi when asked about the choice of brand.
Inside each staff there was a Nano RX OEM module of 5 volts with an internal antenna. “We used Madrid’s Arena, a venue of 100m x 60m – wireless range of very important to us, also considering the thousands spectators with in the area with mobile phones. We also a single Blackbox F-1 with a standard 3dBi antenna, placed at the centre of the venue to transmit the signal – this covered the area seamlessly!”, added Rafael.
Sama-Sama takes the audience on a 360-degree immersive journey to a parallel universe. A dozen large-scale interactive installations urge the audience to unleash their creativity, become performers, to play and have fun.

Each pole had two rings of 25 RGBW addressable LEDs. There was only one universe of DMX transmitted through the F-1, which was connected to a grandMA2. “We assigned 8 DMX channels for each pole and controlled the RGBW colours of each ring – each DMX channel was a colour for the ring, per pole. In addition to the 8 channels per 12 sticks, we added 200 more to control the same pixel in all the sticks, making a total of 296 channels. We were able to play the same light chase together and different chases individually”.

As for the power consumption, each pole contained a 5200mAh LiPo battery that lasted for over 3 hours, of which 80mAh were used by the Nano RX card.

The individual installations were created exclusively by the Sama-Sama team and featured user-friendly interfaces and intuitive instructions designed to fully engage the audience. The Sama-Sama journey culminated in a grand finale where all audience members became part of the Sami community.

Recognized for its innovative approach and high quality artistic entertainment, Cirque du Soleil provided guidance in the development of this live experience as well as acting as a business partner in the venture. “We see great potential in Sama-Sama’s new immersive concept and have decided to come on board. This innovative approach is unique and we believe it will touch audiences in a brand new way” said Charles Joron of Cirque. In contact with this project was Arik Yarkoni from A.B. Electronic, W-DMX™s exclusive distributor in Israel, who were responsible for the technical sale and support of this project.
Copyright © Rafael Mizrahi Urang-kurai