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!
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!
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
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!
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
Pendulum Summer Festivals 2009 – Photos
Check out a few of my photos from Pendulum's European summer festival tour this year:
