Nightscape’s new venue uses real-time rendered Unreal Engine graphics powered by disguise to transform Nashville’s former 12th & Porter space into a state-of-the-art entertainment facility.
“To us, projection-mapped spaces aren’t just about what’s on the walls," explained Nightscape CEO Mike Weinberg. "It’s about what that environment creates for the experience people have inside the walls. We are pioneering this approach, which wouldn’t be possible without Unreal Engine and of course, disguise."
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The venue’s main room is wrapped in 360 degrees of projected Unreal Engine content, powered by three disguise vx 2 media servers and four rx II render nodes, and displayed with the help of 21 Epson projectors. Cues from Spatial (a real-time audio rendering solution), 34 d&b speakers and corresponding custom scent diffusers build out extra layers of realism—all to reinforce the narrative that venue guests have entered a different time, place, or world.
"disguise was absolutely crucial to the success of our project as the turnkey solution for taking our highly complex real-time visuals and projecting them in the space,” said Nightscape vice president, Kevin Longwell.
In order to achieve a constantly evolving and diversified space and calendar of events, the Nightscape team needs to constantly pivot from one concept to another.
“The Nightscape concept works best when the space is extremely modular, both physically and digitally,” explained Weinberg.
Nightscape started with five different concepts staged within 30 days of the venue’s launch: college basketball’s March Madness and Masters golf watch parties, golf and underwater-themed nightlife events, as well as a first-of-its-kind immersive dining experience called “TASTE, A Culinary Series: Italian Villa.”
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TASTE took guests on a two-hour journey through a castle built in Unreal Engine and designed with sophisticated audio and visual movements throughout.
“From the larger-than-expected sales to the significant positive response and interest from guests, clients and potential partners, TASTE has been a major success on every level,” said Weinberg.
The venue’s ability to showcase varied capabilities custom-designed for each event has sold clients on hiring Nightscape for a variety of new activations and installations outside the venue—taking the incredible turnkey experiences on the road. The creative services arm of the company has, in fact, been using disguise to produce events and activations across the country, at events like SXSW and Coachella.
“Having disguise as our end-to-end server solution for all projects has streamlined our internal process to work efficiently without sacrificing on quality,” said Longwell. “Not to mention that the support we’ve received from disguise, both technically and developmentally, has been second to none. We are infinitely excited about moving in lockstep with disguise as we continue to evolve in this space together.”