At EXPO 70 new methods of presentation were perfected. Here Robert Simpson, Founder Director of Electrosonic, describes some of the interesting developments that could be seen and heard there.

Robert Simpson worked on several EXPO 70 projects. Electrosonic provided the AV control systems for 13 pavilions at EXPO 70 including those of the UK, Scandinavia, Ireland, and New Zealand. The help of Robin Prater (who worked for Electrosonic at the time) in the preparation of this article is acknowledged.

By Robert Simpson

EXPO 70 in Osaka, Japan, was the first world exposition to be held in Asia. Its theme was "progress and harmony for mankind" which allowed exhibitors a lot of latitude. It attracted more than 64 million visitors, which, as they all had to come in only 183 days, presented some logistical problems. On one day over 800,000 people turned up!

But the average of 350,000 per day (more than ten times the number that a major theme park would consider "full capacity") had plenty to see. 76 countries, and 32 Japanese organizations (mainly large corporations) were exhibiting. Clearly the problem for any exhibitor was to decide how to make an impact on the visitors. Should they aim to get the maximum number of people through their pavilion? Or should they aim to give a better experience to a smaller number? This dilemma has followed the EXPO phenomenon since its inception

Of course the public makes up its own mind. At EXPO 70 the USSR and USA pavilions glowered at each other from opposite sides of the park, but both were "must sees" for EXPO 70 visitors. Both featured space exploration, but the USA won on points because it had real "moon-rock" to show. The USA pavilion featured a woven fiber-glass roof 80m*140m that was held in place by cables, but supported only by air pressure.

Another pavilion that depended on air pressure to stay up was the Fuji Pavilion, a pneumatic structure resembling a covered wagon. Sixteen vinyl coated nylon tubes, each four meters in diameter and 78m long, were joined together and inflated to make the Pavilion stand up. The interior space had no pillars at all and was 31.6m high. In it visitors stood on a slowly revolving turntable and saw a continuous film presentation on a giant screen.

The Fuji Pavilion's show was the world premiere of IMAX. This large screen film presentation system was invented by a team of Canadian film makers and engineers, most of whom had been involved with major productions at EXPO 67 (Montreal) and who wanted a means of presenting huge images from a single projector (as opposed to using multiple projectors).

IMAX uses 70mm film traveling horizontally, with 15 perforations per frame. The frame size is 48.5mm*69.6mm, which is more than ten times the area of normal 35mm film and more than three times that of conventional (vertical travel) 70mm film. The amount of film moving through the projector for each frame is so great that a conventional film advance mechanism would tear the film, so IMAX uses a "rolling loop" method of film advance, which has the added benefit of "pin registering" the film while it is being projected. This gives exceptional picture steadiness on images which can be as big as 32m*24m.

Today there are over 200 IMAX theaters throughout the world. Nearly 40 years after its debut at EXPO 70, IMAX remains the standard by which all other methods of big picture presentation are judged.

Sound played a big role at EXPO 70. Back at EXPO 58 (Brussels) the Philips Pavilion (designed by le Corbusier) featured a "poemeelectronique" with "music" (actually a collage of many different sounds) composed by Edgard Varese. The recorded sound was directed through 425 loudspeakers according to a program that ensured that each performance was spatially different. At EXPO 70 the German Pavilion featured an auditorium housed within a 30m diameter geodesic sphere designed as an "electrical space-sound studio" incorporating various experimental techniques for "future concepts" of opera theaters and concert halls. The facilities included 500 loudspeakers and complex sound mixing and routing equipment.

As 1970 represented the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, the space was used for live concerts and recorded music of both classical and modern composers. The most notable of the latter was Karl Heinz Stockhausen who personally conducted performances of his electronic compositions every day for several months of the EXPO. He used what he called a "sound mill" (rather like a hand coffee-grinder) where turning the handle directed sounds to different parts of the sphere.

Most pavilions wanted to ensure that as many visitors as possible could move through their exhibitions. This meant that if any kind of "show" was to be given, there had to be sufficient space for the audience; so, for example, if the target was 1,800 visitors per hour, a two minute show would need space for at least 60 viewers. The UK pavilion, which, like its predecessor at EXPO 67, made good use of audio-visual displays integrated into exhibition settings, was one of many to exploit the relatively new technique of multi-image projection using multiple electronically controlled slide projectors. The pavilion included a 16 screen (32 projector) display devoted to the arts, and featuring leading British artists, sculptors, architects and actors of the day; but to meet the visitor flow requirement it was only a few minutes long.

Swiss Pavilion

Many of the foreign exhibitors used multi-image slide technique. It was particularly suitable for relatively small pavilions like that of Ireland, which had a most engaging show based on excellent photography of the country. The Scandinavian Pavilion had a show using over 60 projectors, but unfortunately their clever ideas did not really work with the Japanese Public. Visitors were given a "fan" (in fact a white card) and if they held it correctly they could read projected captions on it that described the images on the overhead screens.

This approach could have worked well in an exhibition with few highly motivated visitors; but the Japanese visitors, mostly in organized groups with a flag-bearing leader setting the pace, simply did not have the time to work out what they were supposed to do.

UK Pavilion

EXPO 70 was really notable for the presence of the big Japanese corporate pavilions. Many of these worked on a "timed show" basis. While this allowed proper shows of some length to be given, it did limit the throughput of individual pavilions. Many of the pavilions were obviously inspired by the success of the multi-screen films that had been seen at EXPO 67, and were determined to go one better, with varying degrees of success.

Typical was the combined Toshiba and IHI Pavilion. Here 500 visitors at a time were loaded onto a circular platform that then rose 5.5m up into a 26m diameter theater space. An 18 minute film show was presented on nine screens, each 9m wide at base and 7.5m wide at the top. During the show, entitled "Light for Man", the audience platform rotated.

The Gas Pavilion had a multi-screen film show "symphony of laughter" shown on four screens to audiences of 380 at a time. The arrangement of a long narrow screen on the floor, two tall vertical screens and a conventional front screen was reminiscent of the "Labyrinth" pavilion seen three years before at EXPO 67. The Automobile Pavilion had a 35 minute four screen show called "240 hours a day", a humorous science fiction film presented on three screens side by side and a portrait format screen in the ceiling.

In 1969 Sony had developed the U-Matic range of videocassette based professional video recorders. Although tape is not ideal for exhibition presentation, and would have been very expensive at the time, it is clear that color video presentation was used at EXPO 70, for example the Telecommunications Pavilion is described as having 200 color TVs showing pictures of babies. It is not clear how many separate video sources were used, but it is at least probable that a number of early U-Matic machines were used (otherwise studio TV recorders or telecine machines would have been necessary; the alternative of lots of live babies on camera seems unlikely!).

The Telecommunications Pavilion demonstrated Japanese expertise in long distance communication by having "video telephones" demonstrated on giant TV screens. Live hook-ups to Tokyo, Kyoto and Japan's southernmost point, Tanegashima Island, were shown on giant projection screens -- a 13m*9m black and white image and two 6m*4m color images, all using the Swiss Eidophor projection system.

EXPO 70 was a true "blockbuster"; hard work to visit, but with many rewarding exhibits to see if you had the stamina.

Midori Kan Pavilion

Italy Pavilion