Hippotizer Powers Projection Design For Finnish National Theatre

The critically acclaimed new production at the Finnish National Theatre, Day of Remembrance (Muistopäivä), is captivating audiences with its cutting-edge projection design, which is powered by Hippotizer Media Servers.

The play shines a light on Finnish citizens who defected to the Soviet Union in the 1930s, and vanished during the Stalinist purges. It blends documentary material, poetic theatricality, and a stark installation-like stage design, and a haunting visual world. 

Working in collaboration with the National Archives of Finland and private collections, Finnish National Theatre Head of Lighting and Video Ville Virtanen had access to more than 147GB of historical material — letters, diaries, interrogation records, photographs, police files, and personal documents.

"Only a fraction ended up on stage, but the material shaped everything," Virtanen explains. "We wanted the audience to feel that these were real people — not abstract history. Using a Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 enabled us to integrate archival textures, handwriting, and documents into a unified, layered visual world."

The set, designed by Janne Vasama, is intentionally minimal yet visually striking: a glossy, blood-red plexiglass floor; a full-width descending black wall composed of sliding doors; a medium-grey upstage projection screen; and a black tulle between stage and audience for layered projection effects.

"I was given free hands with the lighting and video design," says Virtanen. "The set is essentially an empty stage, but the reflections from the ultra-glossy floor became so visually strong and expressive that they shaped the entire aesthetic. In fact, some rehearsal videos were removed and replaced simply with reflections — they were that powerful."

The performance space presented significant challenges for projection mapping. A recently added projection "nook" in the back wall positioned the main projector too high, with auditorium lights casting shadows across the image. "To solve this, we hung a second projector above the stage, closer to the screen," adds Virtanen.

On projection duties are an Epson EB-PU2216B with ELPM15 lens and a Panasonic DLP PT-DW6300K with ET-DLE080 lens. Virtanen is using multiple Hippotizer viewports per projector, and blended and keystone-aligned outputs for a seamless full-wall image.

"The Boreal+ MK2 made it possible to unify two very different projectors into one large, consistent canvas," he notes. "Without Hippotizer, achieving the scale and cohesion the production required simply wouldn't have been possible."

Through MA3 integration, projector lamp and shutter control is routed via the Hippotizer in PJLink, with additional safety controls enabling operators to switch camera inputs instantly if wireless transmission were ever to fail.

A live wireless Sony PXW-Z90 camera, transmitted through a Teradek Bolt 500 Pro, feeds directly into the Hippotizer with almost no latency. "We delay the audio by only about 14.6ms, which keeps picture and sound perfectly synchronized," Virtanen says. "That low latency is essential, because almost all the live footage is shot somewhere other than the stage itself.

"Once we saw the reflections and the projection working together, we knew we had something special. The collaboration between lighting, video, and set design was seamless."

The production has already received strong praise from theatre critics and audience members. "People have commented on how integrated the visuals are — and that's rare in Finland," Virtanen adds. "It's been gratifying to hear."

After each performance, audiences exit through a foyer installation — currently designed using three projectors — where the names of 5,000 identified victims in 1938 are projected across the walls, continuing the emotional and historical impact of the work.

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