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GREEN-HIPPO, PANASONIC, VIDEO

Green Hippo and Panasonic power 3D multi-sensory spectacle at Bishop Auckland’s epic “Kynren”

Kynren – An Epic Tale of England, is an annual outdoor spectacular performed in the shadow of Bishop Auckland Castle in County Durham.

An Epic Tale of England, is an annual outdoor spectacular performed in the shadow of Bishop Auckland Castle in County Durham.

With a cast and crew of 1,000 volunteers and a 90-minute narrative spanning 2,000 years of British history, this epic show has already drawn audiences of over 400,000 to its sweeping 7.5-acre stage.

Inevitably, the production leans heavily on cutting-edge entertainment technology to deliver its immersive storytelling. And in a show where scale and precision are everything, the visual infrastructure must be powerful, adaptable, and absolutely dependable.

So, responding to a brief from Graham Emerson, Kynren’s Chief Technical Officer, we helped specify two key brands - Green Hippo and Panasonic which, together, take the visual storytelling of this epic to a whole new level whilst also giving the operators are far more flexible and intuitive system to allow for greater freedom in the future.

The first challenge was servers. Kynren’s previous media server setup lacked flexibility and local support, a serious challenge so close to opening night. The team urgently needed a scalable playback solution that could migrate the existing 2D workflow to a more robust system, just weeks before the first performance.

To deliver the upgrade, technical specialists Illuminate were brought on board, led by Director Jonathan Pask. The team installed and programmed two Green Hippo V4 Karst+ MK2 units and one V4 Nevis+ that we specified, seamlessly transferring the show to the new system.

Jonathan’s team also provided thorough handover training to ensure the Kynren crew felt confident and supported, including on-site assistance during the first performance.

Why Green Hippo?

Firstly, their award-winning Hippotizer's servers are purpose-built for such environments. Known for their real-time video manipulation, scalability, and powerful toolset, they are ideal for productions demanding precision 2D/3D mapping and high-resolution playback.

Secondly, Hippotizer's SHAPE toolset allows full 3D models to be imported and used as projection canvases. Now that the castle has been LiDAR-scanned and its 3D model integrated into the workflow, the content is now projected pixel accurately onto the castle from the Panasonic projectors.

Panasonic PT-RZ34K - laser sharp resolution and rich colour reproduction

In addition to Green Hippo, we also supplied five Panasonic PT-RZ34K projectors. These powerful 3-Chip DLP® laser projectors deliver exceptional brightness (up to 32,000 lumens), sharp WUXGA resolution, and rich colour reproduction. The units are engineered for large-scale mapping with features such as geometric adjustment, edge blending, and built-in failover protection, again ideal for outdoor spectacles where clarity, stability and precision are vital.

“It was a privilege to be involved in this unique project and to see products from two of our long-stand brands help transform the projection system. The scale, detail and complexity of the Kynren show is exactly what Green Hippo media servers and Panasonic projectors are designed to cope with, and they more than met the brief.”
- Stuart Burdett, Video Sales Manager at AC-ET

“This is a great example of where we can bring our proven tech expertise to two collaborative partners to help resolve key technical challenges by specifying the exact tech they need to invest in.”

If you’re planning a major outdoor production that needs video mapping and high definition projection, talk to Stu and his team of video tech experts on 0113 255 7666.

Or email sales@ac-et.com.