Case Study - WRG
CELTIC MANOR
Case Study
FMCG CONFERENCE FOR WRG – A NEW WAY OF WORKING.
Brief:
The event producer needed a system which would be multi -screen, but with exceptional visual quality and flexibility regarding image placing. The production design comprised of 5 individual screens to span the width of the venue giving space for speaker slides, video inserts and supporting product stills.
Blue-i were asked to provide an integrated playback & switching system for slides, video and images to cover this expanded canvas of just under 25 metres wide. Content would sometimes run on just the central screen, or replicated over all 5 and on occasions there would be 5 different images to the screens.
The system needed to be flexible enough to allow for content changes during the event and very fast to rig – only 5 hours available before a full rehearsal schedule.
Design:
At Blue i, we looked to a combination of Green Hippo HD media servers and Barco Screen Pro 2 HD switching, to feed signals to the 5 pairs of Barco SLM R12+ projectors.
Having been involved since the release of Version3 of Green Hippo’s programming software, and supplying Hippotizer HD’s on several shows over the past few years, it was an obvious choice to use the Hippos as a controlled source for video and stills playback where timeline programming was essential.
Green Hippo’s ZooKeeper software allowed for a single control interface for all the content across the whole screen. Flexibility was added to the central screen by using the ScreenPro2 HD switcher which faded Powerpoint sources in & out of the Hippotizer screen states as desired.
Pre-production & Rig:
The graphic design house co-ordinated the visual elements and overall ‘look’ of the show, and worked closely in pre-production with Blue-i who advised on all image and video sizes and formats to ensure that quality was maintained at native resolutions.
One of the many features of the Hippotizer software was the ability to resize video and stills that came late to site; or in this case during lunch for the afternoon session. This feature allowed Blue-i’s Hippo programmer to create a seamless panorama of images or videos as desired.
To reduce the rig time, Blue-i’s in-house designed truss looms comprising of dual channel fibre optic signal transmission, mains and projector control channels were utilised. The projection engineering team of were able to stay one step ahead of the build and be ready to check signals and line-up as soon as possible.
Show:
Once the client team had seen what was possible on the available screen area, there were many last minute changes requested.
Blue-i’s team were able to work closely with production and graphics to create a show ‘on the fly’. With so little rehearsal time available, the majority of scenes in the show were put together at all points of the day and night. Close integration of all the elements involved was vital.
By planning various screen states and storyboarding beforehand, and we were able to respond to very last minute requirements of the end client swiftly, which reflected back onto our production partners as everyone having a “Yes We Can” approach to the entire event.
The result was an end client looking forward to using the media servers again on more of their events for their quality and versatility. Blue-i had supplied the perfect system which exceeded their expectations, and everyone is looking to explore Hippotizer’s abilities in the near future.
For more event images go to http://www.blue-i.tv/projects/view/25