LONDON –  The desert planet Arrakis came to life at Leicester Square for the world premiere of Dune: Part Two on Thursday February 15, with nearly 30 tons of sand shipped to the site for the gala created by Limited Edition Event Design. But the rainy weather during the build-up days leading to the star-studded red carpet affair was anything but desert-like. No matter though, the IP65 rated 3.9mm pitch panels were more than up to the task of handling rain.

“For the actual red carpet part of the event when the stars were there, it was just a little chilly and dark, but clear,” said Tom Warden of Milton Keynes-based IPS, which supplied, installed, and ran the gear for the widely publicized premiere. “However, the weather during the build days certainly tested the IP rating of the REM 3IP, as it rained most of the time. The screens passed with flying colours!”

When the weather cleared, and stars like Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, Hans Zimmer & Souheila Yacoub graced the red carpet, the event, with its impressive sand dunes, flaming torches and other dramatic scenic elements, dazzled fans and media alike.

Shining brightly during the festivities and defining the magical atmosphere were stunning video displays on the over 200 square meter screen that was artfully made from the REM 3IP panels.

“We ran the panels as a single screen, creating a huge seamless backdrop wall,” said Warden. “The dimensions of the screen itself were 42-meters wide by 5-meters high. The final output resolution was a staggering 10,752px by 1280!”

Content on the massive video walls consisted of a full width series of background clips with footage from the film studio, with PIP details added behind sections of the set as backdrops for interviews. This content was all bespoke for the premiere and created by the film studio to match the screen proportions. Media playback via a Disguise Media Server fed the content to the screens. This helped cut up the content into sections to be fed to the NovaStar MX40 Pro screen drive racks running the screens.

Reflecting on the massive project, Warden noted: “James Mason our Project Manager and the entire IPS crew worked very hard to make everything happen onsite. Richard Godin from Limited Edition Event Design did the lighting design and was heavily involved in the technical side of the event, running everything on the ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M. Dan Ainsley was the main LED Screen operator for the event, which was a very big deal for us and him, as it featured the biggest screen we’ve ever built. Dan took everything in stride, and remained consistently impressed with the REM 3IP panels and their performance onsite.”

The REM 3IP panels were joined at the premiere by other CHAUVET Professional products, including F4IP video panels, interspliced with Maverick Storm 4 Profiles that surrounded the striking 15-meter wide fountain within the gardens for the premiere.

Adding an extra dash of panache to the event was a line of 60 COLORado Q40 fixtures, which were arranged across the top of the screen. Generating an exciting moving element were 68 Rogue Outcast 1 BeamWash fixtures on the floor near the carpet.

A collection of 16 onAir IP Panels located in key positions provided soft light for the interview areas, while 22 Ovation Rêve E3-IP profiles were used for key highlighting. These fixtures were used quite often in the interview area, given the large number of celebrities and media at the premiere of Dune: Part Two, a film that critics later hailed as “spectacular.” To those attending the event at Leicester Square on this February evening, that word could also be applied very well to the premiere that introduced this landmark film to the world.