Narendra Modi embraces MDH Hologram’s hologram technology once more in bid to lead India

Already billed as gigantic, the Indian general election has today been taken to a colossal level by prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The leader of India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is using MDH Hologram technology in a mammoth and carefully orchestrated campaign designed to amplify his appeal and maximise his reach.

With voting taking place across the country from 7 April to 12 May, culminating in the count on 16 May, Narendra Modi is again moving electioneering beyond the traditional rally.

Working with our MDH Hologram team and technology

Having successfully worked with MDH Hologram during his 2012 campaign, Narendra Modi again chose MDH Hologram to consult, design and manage these holographic addresses.

In order to reach more people, Narendra Modi will be using our holographic technology to address multiple audiences simultaneously across India. A 3D life-like hologram of the politician will be projected onto stages at a staggering 3500 – 4,000 events in just 45 days before voting ends.

The events will enable Narendra Modi to extend the reach of his campaign’s message and provides multiple opportunities to appear before his electorate in 1,500 locations and, in doing so, personally address 100 million voters.

Our technology delivers the campaign scale required

Using our holographic technology means that Narendra Modi and his team will be able to run their campaign at a scale otherwise logistically impossible, particularly as elections in India are on a size like nothing else: 814 million people are eligible to vote, with an expected turnout of 70% and 1.2 million sq. miles to cover.

However, the scale of this project in itself is huge and the challenges MDH Hologram had to overcome considerable. Indeed, the equipment list alone is staggering: over 30,000 square meters of our MDH Hologram patented holographic projection foil; 200 Christie 20k and 14k projectors; 400 satellite dishes; 5,500 metres of trusses, 1,300 lights; 500 audio speakers; 200 sound mixers and power amps; and 14,000 metres of speaker and power cables.

Our role in creating the holographic campaign

• HQ studio build – at the Narendra Modi campaign HQ, our MDH Hologram team designed and built an onsite studio from which he would speak.

From here, speeches will be filmed and broadcast live via a satellite uplink to the stages at each day’s events.

To ensure a perfect delivery and enable the campaign team to monitor everything, we also built a receiving stage at the HQ, which will receive the same satellite feed as the event stages. This is so Narendra Modi’s team will be able to view exactly what is being broadcast at any given time.

There is also a GSM camera car at each location beaming back images of the venue construction and the address in real time, which is then simultaneously displayed on a massive screen at the HQ.

The HQ’s studio and stage have also been used as a training venue for teams on the ground.

• Hologram delivery stage design – we created the specification for the stages to be deployed on location around India, which took one of two styles:

Fixed stages – these are transported via truck, with the installation team and projector travelling by bus alongside. These stages are 10m x 10m and designed to be assembled and disassembled at each site in a matter of hours, by well trained and expertly supervised teams.

Mobile stages – these are built into sea containers and transported by truck. Mobile stages have everything permanently installed and ready to work, requiring only the driver to park the truck, whilst a small team of four lower the sides to create the stage, and mount the projector and switch on. They are self-contained units, producing their own power, and can be driven to a location and be ready to go in less than an hour.

• On-the-ground support – our MDH Hologram team on the ground has equipped and trained over 200 installation crews, which will be travelling around India working with the stages and installing our IceMagic system.

Integral to our ground-level support, we have provided technical support and expert staff to ensure the professional delivery of campaign addresses at each location. MDH Hologram expert emergency response teams will be available throughout the campaign to be flown to any location to resolve technical problems at a moment’s notice.

With the election result not known until 16 May, but with 3,500 – 4,000 holographic events planned between now and then, there is one thing for certain: Modi’s existing Guinness World Record for 53 simultaneous holographic broadcasts is about to be beaten. We’ll keep you posted.