Clothes Show Live, NEC Birmingham
Tonight marks the end of a very busy week for James with XL Video at the Clothes Show Live event in Hall 9 at the NEC.
The show this year was based around "A Night at the Movies" theme, with each act of the show as a different genre of film. Opening with a Mission Impossible sequence which rolls into James Bond, the show goes through High School Musical, Western, Sci-Fi, Fairytale Romance, Scary, Rocky Gangsters and finishes with a feelgood finale.
Guest live music acts joined the show each day to entertain the crowd before the main show, these included Lucie Jones, Sunday Girl and Inju5tice.
Tim Riley at XL Video supplied 3x Lighthouse R7 screens for the stage, two of which were on revolves, along with Barco projected side screens fed using a 4x camera HD Panasonic PPU. The LED was fed using Basic Monkey's new 'Gorilla' Catalyst system and additional side screen and centre screen content came from XL's own Catalyst system.
Lighting designer Nigel Catmur and content designer Colin Rozee built visually pleasing and tightly timed intro sequences for each act, with lighting closely tied to video using a RoadHog console to trigger the Catalyst machines.
For a change the bulk of James' work was as a shoulder mount cameraman, along with responsibility for the Catalyst machines and LED.
On cameras were James Cooksey, Alex Roberts, Arran Busk, all engineered by Jake Robertson and directed by Kevin Watts.
After 37 shows in 6 days, it's time for bed now! Please check out the photos below, all of which are grabs from the video.
Thomson Reuters Eikon, Tokyo
Tonight was the last in the 'LED arches' series of launch events for Thomson Reuters' Eikon product at the Tokyo International Forum.
After the success of the London and New York launch events, James was asked to attend the Tokyo launch to ensure that it shared the same result.
Using the same show programmed for New York on Jands' Vista lighting software, it was a case of simply adding video files in Japanese to the locally supplied Catalyst machines and repeating the flow of the previous shows. James brought a Vista M1 playback wing with him on the plane to make running the show easier.
This trip ends a hectic year working with XL Video and Jack Morton Worldwide for James in anticipation for more next year.
Wella ITVA 2010, Paris
Tonight was the 2010 Wella International Trend Vision Awards show at Halle Freyssinet, Paris which saw competitors and guests from all over the world show off and discuss the big new hairstyles and colours for the next 12 months. The event was produced by Jack Morton Worldwide who brought together a huge number of suppliers to create a very successful show.
The event was built in three 'acts', the first being a demonstration of Wella's big new trends of 2011, 'Passionista', 'Lumina', 'Glamazon' and 'Polaris'. The afternoon act consisted of two competitions, 'Young Talent' and 'Colour', both of which are very prestigious awards to receive and can lead to great things for the winners.
In the evening, the guests and competitors were treated to dinner and entertainment from Diversity, The Noisettes and Soul Symphony.
The day show catwalk area consisted of 4x HD side screens and one 16m x 7m edge blended main screen. The main screen at the back of the catwalk had a revolving box at it's lower centre to allow four different apertures for the models to emerge from, each matching the style of the trend. In the afternoon, this box was opened up to allow a DJ to perform for the competitions.
XL Video were brought in to realise the video requirements on site, including fixed, jib and mobile cameras, LED screen, projection and control systems.
The trend content was designed and created by Knifedge with additional stings and animated name straps created by Jamie at JSCGI, all managed by Adam from JMW London and Justine Catterall.
James was tasked to turn the mass of video files, images and audio tracks into a programmed live show using Catalyst. Part of this process was done at XL Video's office in Hemel Hempstead to save time on site, however due to the delivery schedule of the video content lots more had to be done in Paris meaning some long days and late nights. Being involved from an early stage in meetings at Jack Morton's office in London and a wealth of emails and conference calls meant that James could ensure content was delivered in a way to work smoothly in Catalyst and make best use of the projection media.
Basic Monkey supplied a Jands Vista S3 system to control the 4x XL Catalyst systems and also our own new 12 core Catalyst system for surround audio playback and video processing. The system involved signal routing which allowed country and studio names to be keyed onto the live webcast at the same time as flags were displayed on the main screen. Live camera feeds were fed into Catalyst to be output to the side screens when not used as part of the trend video intros.
The show involved heavy use of alpha channel transparency to allow builds rather than fades, this involved some creative programming which was made readily achievable thanks to the the Jands Vista software.
Next years show is in New York and despite being pretty tired after the week, James is hoping to be involved again next year.
Many thanks to Nina Dunn from Knifedge who took the photos during the show (I was busy pressing the button in video city!).
Thomson Reuters Eikon “Go Live”, New York
Today was the "Go Live" launch of Thompson Reuters' Eikon Product in The Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal, New York.
After a year of planning and preparation the event went with true style and noticeably impressed the clients and potential clients present.
The core feature of the event was the innovative video concept by Jack Morton Worldwide, implemented by XL Video. 4x Barco MiTrix arches covered the audience space, leading up to a stage backed with a Hibino 4mm Chromatek LED screen, one of the most advanced and impressive on the market.
The whole system was fed using a Catalyst system sourced in the USA, programmed by James of Basic Monkey. Catalyst was used to play the arrival video loop, opening sequence, video excerpts and then some abstract graphics to amuse the guests after the show. For the main presentation, Keynote was used, this being fed into the Catalyst system.
At all times it was important to keep video sources native to the screens' resolutions, this was achieved with lots of maths, careful signal paths and video transcoding.
Using Final Cut Studio, James 're-crunched' the source video excerpts to match the native resolution of the main screen which always leads to better results than scaling on the fly.
The show was triggered using Basic Monkey's Jands Vista lighting software and M1 playback wing which is a very easy system to transport on the plane as hand luggage.
The next stop for James on the Eikon campaign is Tokyo where the arches concept will be replicated using different products.
Please check out the photos.
Thomson Reuters Eikon LED Room, New York
This morning the "LED Room" part of the Thomson Reuters Eikon campaign went live at Grand Central Terminal, New York.
The room is part of the three stage campaign for their new financial services product which was introduced with the "Digital Forest" outside the New York Stock Exchange and it's opening precedes the live launch tomorrow.
Using 3x different LED products from Barco and PixLed, a different style of LED room was created from that in London. Since the passing public would be on one side of the room and generally closer to it than London, two main screens of 7mm F-led product were chosen.
These are complemented by an arch of Barco MiTrix over the entranceway to tie in with the 'Go Live' event in the same hall. At the back of the room are two O-lite tickers to match those in the digital forest. All this adds coherence to the campaign.
The room will be open to clients and potential clients over the next 10 days.
Vertu Mobile Installation at Selfridges, London
Last night James was at Selfridges, London for the installation of the new Vertu Mobile sales area.
To increase brand awareness of Vertu's range of mobile phones, which are priced from £3000 to £80,000, they have moved into the short term exhibit area in the 'Wonder Room' at Selfridges flagship store.
The aim of the exhibit is to show the value added services that come with the phones such as international concierge and bespoke soundtracks.
Inca Productions have designed the area, using 12x plasma screens integrated into the set to show brand videos. 8 of these are fed by BluRay with the remaining 4x fed using Catalyst.
The reason for using Catalyst is the ability to indefinitely synchronise the 4x video files needed and display them in different orientations. The plasma feeds are all fed from one machine, using a Matrox Triplehead to split the signal.
Thomson Reuters Eikon LED Box, London
After a huge amount of design, planning, pre-builds and testing, the "LED Room" part of Thomson Reuter's Eikon launch campaign has gone live at Canary Wharf.
The campaign has been designed by Jack Morton Worldwide to launch the product in three stages. The first was the "Digital Forest" which was to create intrigue, the second was "Go Live" to inform the clients and this, the third stage to let clients try out the product in an innovative environment.
The walls of the box are Lighthouse R7 outdoor LED screen, provided by XL Video and driven by Catalyst on a Mac Mini nicknamed the "Kitten".
After a day as a box with three video screens, the wall facing the exit from Canary Wharf Tube Station will have 10x panels of LED removed and a door and windows fitted in their place, turning the box into a room. Inside are stations where clients can use the Eikon product under guidance from Thomson Reuters trainers.
James has been involved from the first pre-build to ensure the smooth running of the Jack Morton designed video content and to program the "Kitten" on site. Basic Monkey provided the Catalyst system for the earlier stages of testing to allow more flexibility as the Mac Mini's graphics capabilities are more limited than the larger systems but perfect for running the final sequence.
As James will not be in the country for most of the time the box is live, the Catalyst system was linked to the internet to allow remote access worldwide to change content and make adjustments. The remote access system worked from Manchester, New York and even on the train using 3G. This became invaluable as the content was changed for the door installation and after a power outage.
The photos include some at the pre-build phase in York at the offices of Stage One who designed and constructed the structure.
Reuters Digital Forest Goes Live in New York
This morning, after a year of preparation and a successful launch in London, the Thomson Reuters Digital Forest campaign goes live in New York outside the famous stock exchange building.
Backed by a huge Thomson Reuters banner, replacing the usual stars and stripes, the 'trees' (which are in a different formation to London) continue the brand's colours and attract a lot of attention from the passing public and more importantly, the traders themselves. Designed as a teaser campaign, the trees convey text messages, show clips from the Eikon product screen advertising campaign and flash abstract graphics to grab attention.
James had been in New York for a week in preparation for this, and part two of the campaign in the coming weeks at Grand Central station.
When looking at a slight angle along the line of the trees, the broken television adverts appear as a solid image. This causes a lot of movement in the crowd to view the installation at various angles. As was hoped, camera phones were out in their numbers, hopefully spreading the word and making the exercise worth the effort.
James has been working with XL Video in the USA, who are supplying the Barco O-Lite modules to Jack Morton Worldwide, for support based on experiences in London and to program the Catalyst machine which would play the content back. Catalyst was chosen for it's flexibility and reliability when being left for long periods of time, and its ability to achieve pixel accuracy, a must at this low resolution.
James to Run Catalyst at Wella ITVA
Basic Monkey will be providing James and our new updated Catalyst system to XL Video for this years Wella ITVA Awards in Paris in November.
The show has previously been done using Encore and playback systems, however this year the 5 projection screen setup (including one 2 way edge blended screen) lends itself to Catalyst. The show will be run on 3x XL Video systems for the projection and Basic Monkey's machine for audio and processing.
There are some surprises in store for the guests with some nifty technical tricks!
Thomson Reuters Digital Forest, London
Today is the start of the new teaser campaign for Thomson Reuters' new Eikon financial product. This 'digital forest' which has been in planning for over a year now is the precursor to more in depth promotion to come.
In a prominent position, at the entrance to Canary Wharf underground station and at the foot of the iconic building itself, the promotion had to be impressive and give the thousands of financial workers in the area something new to grab their attention.
The trees are made from metal frames, fabricated and put together by Stage One; onto these are attached blocks of Barco O-lite LED screen, provided by XL Video. The content is designed and created in-house at Jack Morton in London running on XL's new baby Catalyst media server, nicknamed 'Kitten'.
The display will be live for a week, starting at 5:30am and finishing at 11pm.
