A lifestyle resort that lights up during the night with 3D projection mapping.

Located at the Yucatán Peninsula, in southeast México, Cancún is one of the country’s most beautiful beaches. Its white sand, warm weather, and nightlife make it a popular holiday destination for tourists who can choose between a wide range of top-notch hotels.

A Multi-sensory Experience

Since ocean front rooms are not hard to find, hotels are continuously looking to offer more than just a hotel stay. That is why a hotel in Cancún offers much more: live performances by popular artists, beach parties, a wellness center, culinary experiences, and even day care for pets to make holidays unforgettable. However, while this is already a multi-sensory experience, the hotel took one step further and decided to install projection mapping – a technique in which a common object is used as a surface for video projection – to complement its guests’ stay.

An Ambitious Project for a Luxury Hotel

Projecting on a building is no easy task, and a first-class resort requires premium quality. Therefore, a Spanish studio and Kyiv-based creative studio Front Pictures were called in for this challenging process of turning the resort’s whole façade into an enormous projection screen. Both specialists in projection and 3D mapping, they achieved a top-quality result. Front Pictures oversaw engineering and integration, for which they relied on item’s high-quality profiles to mount the projectors. The modular and strong system allowed them to build the structures so that the +600 lb-projectors fitted precisely as needed.

Time Doesn’t Stop

According to Vitaly Slyusarenko, Front Pictures’ CTO & Partner, “the major challenge in this particular project was time.” Not only was this an ambitious project, but it also needed to be built quickly because the opening date had already been fixed with tickets sold. Considering the time constraints, Front Pictures could not afford to make any mistakes or perform multiple tests, so flexibility was crucial. “[That] was one of the key factors why we chose item as a provider of structural elements for our project”, said Vitaly. In just two months the project was to be conceived and delivered, so the team at item also stepped up their game and did all the high-precision machining and cutting as quickly as possible, delivering all the materials to the installation site in just two weeks after receiving the blueprints.

One of the Biggest Projection Mapping Installations in the World

Vitaly believes this to be a landmark for both Front Pictures and the whole entertainment industry. With a 7000 sqm façade, the hotel has one of the world’s biggest permanent projection mapping installations. This means that the projectors should need minimal maintenance and will keep sub-millimeter precision over the years: as Front Pictures’ CTO mentioned, on a 7000 sqm screen, “even the slightest shift of a projector would result in a noticeable image misalignment.” Hence, needing “rock stable” enclosures for the projectors, out of the 3 different density profiles offered by item, Front Pictures opted for the most dense one, and they are certain item’s 40 mm heavy-duty profiles “proved to be the best solution [they] could hope for in this project.” With this permanent installation built to light up every night, the hotel’s guests will find a one-of-a-kind stay at one of the world’s most wonderful white sand beaches.

Read more about Front Pictures here.