“It is an honour to have Florence Nightingale’s image projected onto Parliament”
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons

Working alongside our partners ESP, NHS England and Parliament UK wanted to light up the Houses of Parliament in a display to celebrate International Nurses Day and Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday.

The timing was crucial, coming in the middle of the country’s COVID-19 crisis, and at a time when the nation was showing appreciation for health and care workers across the land.

Our display had to be visually stunning, befitting of our Houses of Parliament in central London. We had to work through the red tape, set up and test with the minimum fuss, and fast.

Motion Mapping set up on the South Bank of the Thames, opposite Parliament and appropriately by St Thomas’ Hospital, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson received treatment for COVID-19. The team used four powerful Panasonic 30,000 lumens laser projectors to beam our images all the way across the Thames and onto a vast 257-metre by 80-metre section on the Parliament building.

We used Astera AX5 wireless DMX lights, while Green Hippo media servers processed the warping and blending effects, so everything looked superb.

We had just 45 minutes on-site to get the projection right, including all alignment and blending with the framework of Parliament, to going live. Content beamed onto the historic building’s façade included images of Florence Nightingale and recognition of our fantastic health workers.

Despite the technical challenge, the result was awesome. Parliament staff blacked out the building, turning off spotlights and internal lights where possible, leaving our crystal-clear image that Londoners loved.

Not surprisingly, the display caught the attention of the media, and our efforts were covered by national TV and newspapers. It was an honour to work for NHS England and Parliament UK on what was a challenging but rewarding job.

The project was another high-profile win for Motion Mapping, which has also projected onto Stonehenge, St Edmundsbury Cathedral and other well-known buildings and landmarks.

Images courtesy of Ian Wallman
Florence Nightingale image courtesy of Unusual Expo

Let’s Discuss Your projection Mapping Project

Discover more of our work