Coachella

The Coachella Innovation team reached out to Lux Machina Consulting to provide a solution for augmented reality across two stages: the Main Stage & the Sahara tent. As a festival renowned for creative innovation, AR experiences had been created at Coachella before... but not on two stages simultaneously. The event organizer chose Lux Machina Consulting, due to their ability & commitment to deliver under the compressed timeline.

Collaborating with artists such as Anyma, Doja Cat, Ludmilla, Grimes & DJ SNAKE, the team set up a robust AR pipeline that included seamless tracking & integration with artist camps' existing art pipelines, providing them with remote access to LuxMC’s systems directly from their tour buses. LiDAR (light detection and ranging) was deployed for the first time at Coachella to create a 3 billion polygon digital twin, aiding in alignment & occlusion management.

The LuxMC team tackled multiple challenges including: extreme heat, a 1km between stages, quickly onboarding the artist teams into Perforce Software, managing dust & ensuring that timecode & playback were synchronized across diverse setups. Lux Machina provided 6 x UE150 PTZ Cameras, Lux ARCA Servers, Unreal Engine & camera tracking/calibration software and comprehensive project management.

Halon Entertainment deployed a Creative Director & a Virtual Art Department (VAD) Artist & helped integrate the creative visions of all parties underscoring the oft synergistic relationship between Lux Machina & Halon. In the words of HalonVAD Producer Andrew Ritter “Halon worked with Coachella Innovation & Lux Machina to to prep & generate assets in Unreal Engine for Augmented Reality real-time playback. It was a race to the finish line collaborating with creative partners from each artist teams. We delivered custom content for both stages in record time. The team got hot & dusty but had a blast."

Lux Machina’s Producer Viduran Roopan's perspective was, “ For me Anyma's performance on Sun night was my highlight. The creative was the most interesting, it was executed really well, his artist team was very organized. I'm grateful we had an extremely talented & dedicated team as this was a pretty monumental task to accomplish. Hope the viewers appreciated the ingenuity it took to make this a reality.”

From Eric Wagliardo, XR Producer, Coachella Innovation "We were stoked to work with Lux to expand our AR program beyond the main stage for the first time & double the number of artists AR moments from last year. It was a pleasure working with Wyatt & the Lux Machina team. They knocked it out of the park"

Some final words from Exec Producer Wyatt Bartel “this project was a phenomenal experience, it’s not every day you get to use cutting-edge tech to create digital twins & bring the creativity of famous musicians to life”

Credits:

Wyatt Bartel - Executive Producer
Vudu Roopan - Producer
Sam Martin - Technical Director
Dwayne Douglass - Systems Technical Director
Ben Love - Lead Engine Operator
Jack Dartford -  Engine Operator
Nicole Vos - Associate Director of Systems
Sam Martin - Director of Technology
Dwayne Douglas - Systems Technical Specialist
Alvin Kawamoto - PTZ Cam Operator
Jeremy Asuncion - Broadcast Cam Operator
RJ Early - PTZ Cam Operator