James is off to Saudi Arabia
Jonathan Bond of Vision Mill has invited James through XL Video to act as projectionist for an event at The King Abdullah University of Science & Technology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The event involves large format projection using Barco FLM HD-20s onto a building, driven by Barco Encore.
New territory again for Basic Monkey!
Site vist for new Samsung phone launch, Barcelona
Today I'm in Barcelona at the Fira Gran Via, meeting with the team from Jack Morton Worldwide and Cheil (Samsung's marketing agency) to discuss plans for the grand unveiling of their new phone here in February.
I can't divulge too much as the details of the phone and launch are highly confidential, but it's safe to say that this event will make a huge impact and will be unlike anything the press have seen before.
The launch is at the start of the Mobile World Congress in February. Keep your eyes peeled for more info.
James
Visuals at Warehouse Project, Manchester
Tonight was a return to club visuals for Basic Monkey at a new venue, Manchester's highly successful Warehouse Project.
Long term friends of James', The Fetish Sound System, were asked to provide music in the back room while Calvin Harris and Pete Tong were playing in the main room. Along with their DJing, they wanted to make the most of the opportunity with fancy dress, usual fetish antics and a visuals show from Basic Monkey.
We provided our Catalyst media server controlled by Jands Vista S3 lighting console feeding into a central Sanyo projector onto a screen and two installed side projectors onto the brick wall.
Using a wide selection of stock content, specially designed animated texts and also live inputs from a night vision camera and special hat mounted wireless camera worn by Tom from the Fetish and various others; the visuals complemented the antics on stage.
Catalyst and Barco iLite Demo
Check out our latest demo video for Catalyst and iLite 12. Shots taken from Paul Hogarth's 50th Birthday.
Music: "Nero - Do You Wanna"
Catalyst and Screens at Unilever’s Christmas Party
Basic Monkey has been asked to provide Barco iLite12 screens and a Catalyst media server for Unilever's Christmas party.
Steven Williams from CSP saw the photos from Paul Hogarth's birthday party and suggested to Unilever that they use the same system. A few design ideas were put forward but they've decided to go for the same layout of 5 columns of video wall, this time in a V shape plan on stage.
The Catalyst system will also be driving projection in the marquee, all geared towards the Hollywood theme. All video and lighting will be controlled using our Jands Vista S3.
James will be installing and operating the system, also creating some custom Hollywood graphics to work on the LED screen and projections. James will also be designing and operating the lighting.
Should be a great event!
Samsung Korea, Photos and Video
YouTube Video, in 6 parts. Intro, White, Yellow, Pink, Green and Wrap-up.
Some photos of the setup.
Samsung Corby Launch, Seoul
Basic Monkey's first venture outside of Europe has just come to an end, a very exciting 11 days in Seoul, Korea leading to a very successful event.
Following on from the Milan Fashion Week Launch, Jack Morton Worldwide were asked to travel to Seoul with the same team that created the holographic experience in Milan. Lighting, sound, set, staging and side screen video would be provided locally by Yonhanaro. XL Video provided the 16 Barco FLM HD 18 projectors, 2x Catalyst systems and processing, also bringing in James from Basic Monkey and Nev Bull of Pixels Plus to program and run the show. Basic Monkey provided a Jands Vista S3 lighting console, a high-spec Catalyst media server with suite of video software and network gear for content distribution.
Learning from the challenges encountered at Milan, James was involved from an early stage to design the pixel specification and consult with the rest of the team regarding Catalyst capabilities and methods. JMW also decided to help on three fronts to reduce workload and the chance of issues from Milan reoccurring: 1) Bring in a second Catalyst operator, Nev Bull 2) Supply a software producer (and body guard), Sharon Stansfield and 3) Ship the team out well in advance of the event and program offsite at the offices of D'strict (the graphics and content team).
The team worked really well. James would, as before, program and operate the show, with Nev acting as Catalyst technician, handling hardware issues and setting up the complex video input system. Sharon acted as intermediary between the team at D'strict and James and Nev, this meant that any content alterations wouldn't impact too much on programming and ensured a common schedule to work to. James was also responsible for processing the video files provided by D'strict and provided 'pixel crunching' and technical support to the local video team in charge of the side screen content.
For those that don't know, the holograms are created by projecting images onto the floor which then reflected using a very high-tech plastic stretched at 45 degrees along each side of the catwalk. This is provided my Musion, based in the UK and rigged by Steve from Nippy Industries. The technology is amazing and is best appreciated in person, please check out the YouTube videos.
All this technology is nothing without the amazing videos created by D'strict, along with their incredible 'Gesture' system that tracks the presenter's hand movements and also 'Vision Blob' which tracks dancers' movements along the catwalk and maps graphics which appear above or infront of them.
The team on the ground was as follows:
Rob Oliver - Senior Production Manager (JMW)
Jeavon Smith - Producer (JMW)
Tim Riley - Video HOD (XL)
Warren Galt - Projectionist (XL)
Sharon Stansfield - Software Producer
Nev Bull - Catalyst Technician (PP)
James Cooksey - Catalyst Operator (BM)
James to operate Catalyst for Samsung in Seoul, Korea
Following on from the Samsung 'Corby' launch in Milan, Jack Morton Worldwide and the team are invited by Samsung to repeat the show in Seoul, Korea.
XL Video will be providing projection, video control and Catalyst along with James as Catalyst operator. Unfortunately Jonathan Bond isn't available for the event however with a week on site before show, James will have enough time to 'crunch' the content and program the show well before presenter rehearsal.
Basic Monkey will be providing a Jands Vista S3 lighting console and a high-spec MacPro with Catalyst as a content injection, video manipulation and audio playback machine.
This will be Basic Monkey's first event out of the EU and is very exciting. More news to follow!
Catalyst and LED screen for Paul Hogarth’s 50th
Basic Monkey Limited have been asked to provide LED screens in the style of Girls Aloud's current tour for successful developer Paul Hogarth's 50th birthday party.
Paul and Judith have enlisted Lightech Sound and Light to provide lighting and production management for the event, in a marquee at the family home near Holmes Chapel in Cheshire. They wanted something extra special to add to the event, which already has theming from RSVP, catering from With a Twist and photography by Martyn Hicks. Between the clients and Jonathan at Lightech, they decided on 5x columns of LED screen across the stage, spaced in the same fashion as Girls Aloud have used on their arena shows. Jonathan then asked Basic Monkey to provide a technical design and proposal.
James specified Barco iLite 12 from XL Video to produce the effect, supplied in touring frames and with ground stacking hardware. These are driven by Catalyst, supplied by Basic Monkey.
The screens on the main party night were left black and unused until the main DJ started with a grand entrance of dancing girls and pyrotechnics at 11pm to add a surprise to the event. After which a variety content from our huge library along with unique video chases and sound to video were used to make the DJ performance stand out. Since Lightech have asked us to control the lighting aswell, we were able to link the light show and video together to create a real nightclub experience. The videos and chases were matched to the music with constant programming and adjustment throughout the evening. We placed an additional 2x panels under the DJ table to show further videos and sound waveforms generated by Catalyst.
Response from the guests has been incredible, we believe that this is one of the first applications of touring screens on an event of this scale (150 guests).
The screens were used again on Sunday for a BBQ, with more sedate images to begin with, leading once again into flashy vibrant video to bring the party up. We also used live video fed from our Sony Z7 camera to entertain the children.
Catalyst and the lighting were operated using our Jands Vista S3 by James and David.
Samsung Corby launch in Milan with XL Video
This week James was in Milan to operate Catalyst for Samsung's new touch screen phone's European launch.
The phone, named "Corby" in Europe and "Genio Touch" in the UK is being pitched with the line "What colour is your life?". Jack Morton Worldwide produced the show with XL Video providing projection, Barco Encore, Catalyst and crew.
Catalyst was used to drive two independent four projector edge blends either side of the catwalk. These were projected from above onto the floor to show on the Musion screen flanking the catwalk. Musion gives the impression of a hologram on stage using the Pepper's Ghost principal. Four Catalyst machines were used to drive a pair of projectors each, with a fifth as backup and audio machine. These were controlled using Basic Monkey's Jands Vista S3 which James finds to be the best console to trigger Catalyst from, allowing quick alterations using the unique timeline editing.
The screens were used to play four intro videos, each demonstrating a different colour through virtual characters interacting with real dancers. Added to this was 'Vision Blob' where a calibrated camera was used to track a dancer's position on stage and use this information to let the dancers interact with balloons or produce a glow around them.
In the main show, Catalyst was used to play a series of video intros for each section which then became backgrounds for the presentation. Clips highlighting each section, including animated text and phone graphics were cued in line with the script. These Catalyst clips were intermixed with live 'Gesture' content.
For product demonstrations, the presenters were able to interact with the content using the 'Gesture' system designed and implemented by D'strict. Using infra-red sensors in the stage, the presenters could use hand movements to trigger and manipulate the phone images in front of them. This 'Gesture' interaction was generated from four computers, each fed into a DVI matrix, converted to HDSDI and then split into the Catalyst machines. James mixed the video cues and backgrounds with the 'Gesture' content live to allow for changes in show pace.
Due to the late sign off of the content, James only had access to the converted and sized video files the day before show. This meant rapid programming during the rehearsals and a rather late finish! Completion of programming in time is testament to the flexibility of the Catalyst and Jands Vista combination.
The vastly complex signal path was designed by Jonathan Bond of Vision Mill and implemented/adapted by James to meet the ever changing requirements of D'strict.
It was a pleasure to work on the event, despite the highly demanding show, content and time constraints. The show was well received by the press, prompting a standing ovation and an invitation from Samsung to repeat the show in Korea in November. Rob and the team from Jack Morton Worldwide have asked James to run Catalyst again in Korea.
For the technical among you:
5x Mac Pro G2, 3.0 GHz 4 dual 4 core
