Media Server

[Nick LX]

Hi,

 

Would someone be able to explain what the point of a media server is exactly? Say for use in conjunction with a lighting desk like GrandMa or ETC Congo.

 

 

Thanks

[Bryson]

Ummm..to serve media?

 

It's a library of video images, loops and even entire movies that can be quickly selected, effected and manipulated - in syncronicity with what the lights or projectors are doing at the time.

[Pete McCrea]

I was going to say that Bryson.....

 

The media server sits on the DMX network/chain/(insert correct term here) as a fixture. The lighting desk controls the output of the server, mapping channels to various attributes. So channel 1 of the 'fixture' might be overall intensity, channel 2 might be Layer 1 intensity etc. They will have effects to enable mixing between layers, alpha channel fades, alteration of RGB values etc etc etc. They can swallow up several universes of DMX, so that gives you an idea of the number of different features and level of manipulation.

 

Most offer the ability to drive multiple screens with edge blending capabilities, as well as pixel mapping for driving LED products. The number of layers and effects as well as the ability to play HD content will depend on the specification of the hardware and the software option. We had a look at Plasa at Catalyst, Hippotiser and Pandoras Box. Currently I think we'd head down the Catalyst route, due to it being Mac Based, offering HD playback from the basic £750 version and being scalable to run on a MacBook Pro through to the MacPro, meaning we could be playing HD content out for around £3k. Hippo looks good as an all-in-one solution, but to play HD you have to shell out £20K... And seeing as we have a HD workflow I don't want to limit out abilities.

 

On a more basic level they can often be set up to run as a time line or cue stack from a keyboard and mouse, for a more 'old Skool' style.

[Wol]

And I'm guessing that they all run off art net as well, so luckily you don't have to run a separate DMX cable for each universe it eats up!

 

To elaborate on top of what Pete said in terms of how attributes are mapped, you will have all the media, videos, images etc... stored on the media server itself, and in essence, to play them you can use a certain DMX channel to select an index which corresponds to a certain clip or image. So setting a certain DMX channel to value 5 would select the 5th clip in a certain folder.

 

You can also have live video inputs as well, so you can use a video camera as a source to be displayed.

 

Have a look on google for something called "resolume", which essentially acts to serve media, can perform live effects on three layers of video / images (and flash animations which is sooo handy at times!). That shows what kind of things media servers can do.

 

hth