Swaminarayan Akshardham, India Transforming an ancient story into a multimedia spectacle

BAPS, a socio-spiritual organization that was established in the early 20th century,

is committed to voluntary and humanitarian work. Affiliated with the United

Nations’ Economic and Social Council, BAPS has a worldwide network of 3,850

centers and a total of 55,000 volunteers. One of those centers, the Swaminarayan

Akshardham at New Delhi, is a unique temple complex and touristic attraction.

The temples form the backdrop for an immersive water spectacle, retelling an

ancient story… through state-of-the-art Barco projectors.

Barco solutions:

• 6 x HDF W26 Projectors

Key benefits:

• Reliable and powerful projection

• Excellent after-sales services

• A household name in projection

www.barco.com/broadcasting

As our venue is in open air, we need enough lumens

to light up our story Vipul Vaghela,

Technical Director, BAPS”

Old friends are always top of mind BAPS and Barco are no strangers to each other. Barco technology is involved in a similar spectacle in a temple complex at Gandhinagar, lighting up a 40 x 21 meter screen made of water droplets. Technical Director of BAPS, Vipul Vaghela, explains why choosing Barco was an easy choice: “We have been using Barco’s large venue projectors in Gandhinagar for several years now. As we are satisfied with the performance and local support service, Barco was top of our mind for this new project.”

The sheer power of light

As a large number of tourists in New Delhi visit Akshardham, the center plays a key role in spreading the awareness of India and Hinduism. Naturally, nothing was left to chance. For more than one and a half years now, over 150 BAPS volunteers have worked hard to make the water show come true. BAPS engaged multimedia pioneer Yves Pépin as creative director.

The bar was set equally high for the technical requirements. Vipul: “The challenges were huge. Prior solutions were not sufficient for this project. However, as we started, we were able to test the Barco equipment for a whole week. As the venue is in open air, we needed enough lumens to light up the spectacle. Fortunately, those tests reassured us.”

A bliss to work with Barco

Every week, the ‘Sahaj Anand’ show enchants thousands of visitors. They enjoy the spiritual story, brought to life by fire, water fountains, lasers, live actors and projections. Vipul: “We are very satisfied about our cooperation with Barco. We received the solution exactly as we wanted it, and the implementation went smoothly. Furthermore, the service is impeccable. The Barco team is a pleasure to work with.” The show runs daily and has multiple performances in weekends. The philanthropic mission of BAPS shines a little brighter now.

www.barco.com/broadcasting

M30423-R00-0315-AN March 2015

www.barco.com/broadcastingwww.barco.com

Opened in 2005, the Akshardham

complex features temples, a theatre,

formal gardens and musical fountains,

celebrating different aspects of

Hinduism. ‘Sahaj Anand’ water show - a

recently added attraction, has become

the crown jewel of the Akshardham

experience. The spectacle translates

one of the oldest Hindu scriptures into

a mesmerizing 24-minute show using

water, music, special effects, live acting

and animations.

Testing the technology reassured us that

we would achieve our challenging goals

Vipul Vaghela,

Technical Director, BAPS”