Today was the last in a 5 day run for the Gadget Show Live 'Super Theatre', concluding what has been a busy and interesting show.

Following on from last years success, Tim Riley at XL Video was asked to provide Barco NX-6 screens in the auditorium for camera relay and a large Pixled F-30 screen as a set centrepiece.

This was all driven by Basic Monkey's own 'Gorilla' Catalyst system, triggered using our Jands Vista S3.

As usual, it was important for the show to be using the latest in technology. This was apparent not only in the performance, but in the production of the show itself.

For the interactive sections which included a virtual presenter, flash game and flying drones, Inition provided us with feeds from three separate computers. This, in addition to the live MMS and photo competition which accounted for another two laptop feeds, led to a rather complex setup!

All these inputs were fed into 2x Barco DCS-200 switchers which in turn were controlled via Catalyst network serial commands. This meant that the entire video element (excluding cameras of course) could be triggered from one timeline and by one person (in this case James), eliminating the need for a VT operator, switcher and graphics operator.

For the audience competitions, winners and live scoreboards were rendered to screen using a Quartz system designed by James. Using an external laptop to send raw text to the system allowed scores to be updated in real time, styled using the Quartz system.

The camera crew were directed by Kevin Watts who also produced all the graphical content for the LED screens including animated logos, timers and name straps.

Visitors were treated to an impressive, loud and action packed show with live performances from Ortis and Polly, audience participation and lots of gadget giveaways.

If this year is anything to go by, next year will be even more impressive!

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For two days this week, James has been in Wakefield at Litestructures' "LS-Live" venue to set-up and help program the Catalyst systems that will be touring with McFly for the next 3 weeks.

XL Video are providing the systems along with the F11 back and riser screens and MiSTRIP stage.

James has been working closely with Dan from THC Design, who normally uses Mbox media server, to integrate the Catalyst content in with his lighting show.

Tomorrow is the first show in Sheffield and James will be around for any last minute changes and to make sure the first show goes well. Steve from XL Belgium will be looking after the systems for the rest of the tour.

Can you spot the cheeky Basic Monkey in the photos?

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This week saw James at the NEC in Birmingham for the annual Autosport Live show.

In the Fifth Gear Live Action Arena XL Video provided 2x large Lighthouse R7 screens and 9x pillars of PixLed F-30.

These were all driven by Basic Monkey's own 'Gorilla' Catalyst system and Jands Vista S3 running the newly developed software, 'Byron'.

The remit was for a high energy video show to match the intensity of the races and the lighting, along with video relay onto the Lighthouse screens from the camera crew.

Using the Vista S3 playback wing to run the show was invaluable, even if only for the flash buttons. Cutting between live video and graphics was made easier and more fluid by having every available clip relevant to that race on one page.

For the Fifth Gear section of the show, video clips featuring Vicki Butler Henderson introduced each segment.

Lighting for the event was designed by Nathan Wan and much effort was made to tie in the video content colours and pace to that of the lighting state for each race.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Today I had the pleasure of visiting XL Video's very smart and comprehensive "LED LAB" in New York.

The purpose of the operation is to show event and concert designers what technology is available to them in the world of creative video.

In the showroom, which is high up in an office building in midtown New York is a huge variety of LED displays from all the big players including Barco, Hibino and Pixled, and also some emerging brands.

It was great to see what was out there, a fair few of the products I had never seen before. These included the magnetic screen which can be fixed to any suitably prepared steel surface, and can even curve in one axis!

The whole room is run via a d3 media server so that all products are showing a continuous image over varying resolutions, very impressive in itself.

Leaving the showroom I can feel the effect it has, I want some of those toys on my next event...

James

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