Deeside College Awards
This week saw James at Deeside College in Flintshire for their annual student awards show, produced as always by CSP Audio Visual.
All equipment was provided by CSP, apart from our own Catalyst media server and Jands Vista lighting console. The lighting rig was designed by Steve from CSP and operated by James.
The set backdrop was 11m x 4m of ColorWeb 250 with a black backdrop. Over this was hung a widescreen projection surface. Using the Catalyst system, the colour scheme of the lighting, ColorWeb and projection could be easily and effectively matched.
Faithless 2010: Wolverhampton
Welcome to your first glimpse of the world's largest 'Etch-a-sketch'!
Tonight we were blessed with the large stage of the Wolverhampton Civic so all of the back screen went up and all of the riser video strips went out. A perfect chance to get a few photos for you.
From the beginning it was planned that 'Pilot' would be used as the media server for the tour, based on it's ability to do some funky pixel shifting. Due to time constraints and other influences, Intro were commissioned to produce the content for the show rather than use Pilot's built in rendering system. After a few teething problems at Brixton, I decided to try using Catalyst to run the show off my laptop. After a quick programming session at Doncaster, I had the show ready to go, all frame synced to the backing track and no issues at all. A real testament to the flexibility of the Catalyst system.
Check out the photos below to see the LC screen at the back and the MiTRIX panels on the risers.
James
Gadget Show Live @ The NEC
This week James has been at the NEC in Birmingham for the Gadget Show Live with our own Catalyst and Jands Vista combination.
XL Video are providing two Chromatek 6mm screens which are integrated into the wings of the set, into which will be fed a combination of live video, directed by Kevin Watts, and VT playback originating from Catalyst.
In previous years XL have used Doremi hard drive playback devices, however due to content arriving on site from a variety of sources including advertisers, it was decided that using a media server with an operator would be the best solution.
Despite Catalyst's ability to play almost any file format, James converted all files to the Apple Intermediate Codec, well proven for efficient live playback in Catalyst. To best achieve this Tim Riley from XL Video asked Basic Monkey to provide their own media server, complete with it's suite of video and graphics tools.
The show went without major hitch, bar a few moments requiring some ad-lib when the flying scenes didn't go quite to plan leaving Suzi Perry suspended!
Faithless European Summer Tour
James has been invited by Andy Hurst to act as video technician for Faithless' summer arenas and festivals tour. The tour will involve several UK and European venue shows, along with the usual suspects of summer festivals.
Equipment will be provided by PRG, including Martin's LC series semi-transparent LED screens which will be James' responsibility. He will also be helping with the lighting rig and roll on should he have any spare time!
Keep checking back for more news. Follow James' updates here: Faithless Posts
Jamie Tyrer’s 21st Birthday @ Craxton Wood
Lightech Sound and Light, one of Basic Monkey's longest standing clients, have asked us to provide projectors, screens and control equipment for Jamie Tyrer's 21st Birthday Party at Craxton Wood Hotel.
The remit was simply that above, but we also provided our Catalyst system and Vista console to make best use of the lighting installed by James along with Mike, Lee and Jack from Lightech.
Our Catalyst server was used to drive the projection screens and also Lightech's Traxon Mood Tiles. They are usually driven by eCue, but James and Mike decided to use the infinitely more flexible Catalyst system on this occasion with fantastic results.
The evening had a great atmosphere, with entertainment provided by DJ Kerry Spicer.
Report from the Desert
Well, it's warm and sandy.
The venue is an exhibition centre/festival site in the desert surrounding Riyadh, the route to the venue from the hotel varies every day and each has a huge number of new sights for a westerner like myself. Derelict amusement parks, go-kart tracks, vast camel trading areas and the Riyadh Aviation Club which consists of 4 tents by the side of the road.
We built the projection towers and had the projectors running on the first day with a very rough line up. The second evening I spent a few hours with Barco's Projector Toolset and some music to finish the job. Each night we have to cover the 4x Barco HD20s to shield them from the potential sandstorms at night.
Today I ventured with Jake Robertson, my assistant for the week, to the Kingdom Tower in the middle of Riyadh. After a short walk round the mall underneath, I headed up to the sky bridge to take a few photos. Quite a sight.
Some photos below, more to follow.
James
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!
Volvo Dealer Kick-off, Celtic Manor
This week James has been at Celtic Manor for HSL to implement and operate lighting and Robe DigiSpot 7000s for Volvo's Dealer Kick-off. The event was produced by Patrick from CWA, with lighting designed by Phil Wiffen.
Phil specified the 6x DigiSpots to project custom and stock content onto the cycs down the side of the room. Used in both 3 way merge and independent modes, James programmed the show on a Jands Vista T4 under the guidance of CWA.
ATC provided projection onto screens in the centre of each cyc, so when these were in use the DigiSpots would be used to project logos either side of the screen.
The day finished with an evening of X-factor styled karaoke, backed by appropriate stock video content and matching lighting colours.
Ruth Lorenzo was the special guest, performing 6 numbers. With access to the set list only briefly before the guests arrived, James programmed colour and gobo matched video and lighting states to re-enforce her performance.
Samsung Wave launch, Barcelona
Tonight marked a new high for Basic Monkey and for James at the Fira Barcelona. Using a huge amount of technology and an even bigger amount of time, effort and late nights, Jack Morton Worldwide have put on a truly immersive and spectacular launch for Samsung's new phone, the 'Wave'.
The vision from the team Jack Morton Worldwide was to create a 360 degree projected image around a 33m square room with 8m high white walls. The oceanic theme was chosen by the client to re-enforce the 'Wave' brand and D'strict were again chosen to provide the content that would create this under the sea experience.
Tim Riley at XL Video was asked to bring this vision to life and he enlisted the help of James to design and implement a Catalyst system to drive the 24 projectors required. This eventually required 6x Catalyst machines, including Basic Monkey's own to drive the video and surround sound audio. James converted the story board and mass of video files provided by D'strict into a fully programmed show using our Jands Vista lighting console.
For the science bit: 5x Catalyst machines were used to drive the 12x channels of projection through 12x Folsom ImageProHDs, with a 6th machine to play 5.1 channel surround sound audio and generate SMPTE timecode to synchronise the lighting to the live action performance. This demonstrates how involved all the departments of production have become and shows how the Catalyst system can be a very strong heart to this.
J.K. Shin, the President of Mobile Communications at Samsung's speech used Keynote which was input into Catalyst and output on two opposing walls, with one wall across two machines. Live camera feeds, mixed by Kevin Watts, were also displayed as picture in picture images either side of this keynote presentation. Have a look at the schematic to see how it all came together!
The show was a huge success for all involved and leaves only one problem... what's next?
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