Screens at an angle

[chris.santry]

Hello,

 

As part of an installation in the early stages of planning, I'm looking into ways of achieving the following effect.

 

Basically we'd like to create a 'video wall' effect where we can matrix a single image over several screens (not necessarily showing the whole image at once though - think of a number of windows out onto a cloudscape). To make matters a little more complicated it has been mentioned that some of the screens might be mounted vertically or diagonally, to make it look a bit more interesting.

 

Realise this is a little difficult to picture and it did take a sketch on the back of a napkin for me to catch on - so if a picture might be helpful do say.

 

In terms of content to be put through this, it's like to be quite dynamic so unfortunately it seems like we can't simply synchronise playback of pre-butchered content and it does seem a little beyond the capabilities of Windows' Display applet!

 

There is fairly open budget behind this, thankfully - so it seems like a media server of some description might be the way to go but beyond that I've not got a great deal of ideas!

 

Your help appreciated, as ever.

[jason5d]

Sounds fairly simple, you're looking for a windowed effect out on to clouds

we use a mac based video server

to present video across up to 7 screens

using m8 software, it needs an experienced operator though.

I happen to have a demo of 3 screens online: 3 screen spread

 

 

What's the application?

[Stee_cri1]

hi there chris

 

this is the ideal job for a Green Hippo Hypotiser. it is the best media server I have ever seen and it gets used all over the world and on more tours than anyother server.

 

It is relatively easy to use and I could not recommend anything better than this.

 

you can also but led lighting throught it it mood lighting etc

 

If you need any more info about it or how it works please feel free to contact me

 

THanks

 

Steven

[chris.santry]

Should probably have made clear that the screens that are on a diagonal/vertical should still show their 'tile' of the larger image in the right orientation.

 

E.g. for a screen mounted at 45 degrees clockwise, I need to be able to rotate the image 45 degrees anticlockwise to compensate - if that makes sense.

 

The hope is that we can give ourselves all massive headaches setting this up once, and then simply be able to pump any video content through.. each output taking it's own individual 'cookie cutter' area of the overall picture and displaying respectively.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Steven - we're already looking at Hippotiser for another area of this quite video intensive project - does the above sound like something it could do?

[smalljoshua]

That sounds like a good idea, like a collage of screens but with the image still being seen as if looking through a window at it.

 

Is this what you are thinking of?

 

Josh

[chris.santry]

smalljoshua - That's exactly the plan!

[Stee_cri1]

hi chris

 

the hypotiser would do this in its sleep, you can warp, rotate, crop, split images and video so so easily with all the built in software that comes with it. where in the world is it for my friend?

 

the possabilities are endless

 

Thanks

[chris.santry]

It's actually not technically a theatre job, but in fact a club/bar based near Peterborough that is moving towards video. Contacting Green Hippo is on my list of things to do for another part of the installation anyway so it does seem like a good candidate!

[jimbo_hippo]

It's actually not technically a theatre job, but in fact a club/bar based near Peterborough that is moving towards video. Contacting Green Hippo is on my list of things to do for another part of the installation anyway so it does seem like a good candidate!

 

 

Chris.

 

The Hippotizer can certainly tackle this in it's current guise. Depending on the resolutions and configuration it could be done with a variety of options form the range. A keen candidate for this would be our new HippoCritter which has the advantage of being compact and affordable (IRO £3.7K list) with all features of the bigger variants (with the exception of some inputs/outputs due to it's small form factor) and can be positioned close to the displays with remote control (including startup and shutdown) from ZooKeeper software over a gigabit LAN saving a lot on costly video signal distribution. It even has a hanging bracket if you need to put it in truss or similar. How many you would need depends on the configuration and a it may transpire that larger servers like the HD or Stage Hippotizers might be more cost effective than a herd of HippoCritters but that's part of the discussion.

 

In terms of the software, at the moment some careful planning with After Effects or similar will create the media but later this year we will be releasing a new component which will automatically chop up the high-res source media and distribute it across the screens. What you will have is effectively one canvas and by telling the system the physical layout of multiple screens at jaunty angles it will make this kind of setup MUCH easier.

 

The doors at Green Hippo (or our resellers AC Entertainment Technologies or TMB) are always open with no obligations. I strongly suggest you book into our London HippoSchool session which happens once a month. It's £50.00 for a full days training hands-on and includes a good lunch in a nearby restaurant so it's a loss leader for us but arms you with much greater knowledge when you come to specify this further. Alternatively Nigel runs our special projects division and for a reasonable rate will help you spec tis one up and oversee the implementation. You'll probably save back what you spend there.

 

OK sales pitch over....back to work! :-)