12m x 4m LED Video Wall For Conference

[Paul2327]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if someone can help me, I have been asked to supply an 12m x 4m LED Video Wall For Conference.

The client would like the screen to have the company name across the whole 12m x 4m led screen when the staff walk in and breaks etc... and then for the conference itself have the screen split in two 6m x 4m sections, both outputting the same content. Content for this would come from a laptop running powerpoint. I will have a Blackmiagic ATEM mini that the laptops plug into this then outputs into the led screen processor.

Whats the best solution for this project? To be able to choose between outputting to the whole 12m x 4m led video wall and then turn the wall into basically two 6m x 4m led video walls with live content coming from my atem mini.

Thanks in advance.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Paul2327
add more info

[Anothertom]

Assuming you come back to this post...

The first thing I would suggest is to just contract a production company to provide the whole solution for you, the fact you're asking this question means you're probably not in the position to deliver it. Not going to plug anyone in particular but there are plenty up and down the country that can very easily deliver this LED solution.

Focussing on your content workflow question, an Atem switcher is not the best solution. They are purely designed around live camera workflows and fully 16:9 systems. You would be better off with what's known as a presentation switcher (e.g. barco PDS-4k or similar). These support a much wider range (including custom) resolutions on both input and output, have full compositing system that is further separated from I/O, support multiple input formats and connections.

An alternative (on a tighter budget) would be to run as a software solution with video capture; vmix, resolume, Qlab, and many others could be used to do this very easily.

Some people will suggest putting scaling between the content and processing to force the content to fit the resolution of the LED, but that only results in increased latency and warped content. There's no need to do this in the majority of situations.

[Paul2327]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, Outsourcing to a  production company is not an option as I have all this equipment to hand.

When the screen is set to two 6m x 4m screens that wouldn't be far off 16:9 aspect ratio, so the atem mini is fine in that sence. Im just looking for a simple option to switch between a 12m x 4m screen or two 6m x 4m screens. 

[Anothertom]

While you may have some equipment to hand, you don't have the right equipment to hand. You're thinking of your Atem as a piece of content, but it's just a switcher. Your content is what you have upstream of the atem. In this scenario you need to replace your atem with something more suitable to the job.

What you need is a piece of software or hardware able to handle the full resolution of your LED wall and map inputs to sections of that full canvas, either a software media server/playout software or hardware presentation switcher. In this situation I'd probably be speccing a PDS-4k or an S3-4k, if the requirements really are that simple. Your Atem mini isn't going to cut it.

If you think even just on the lines of pure resolution. Assuming an LED product at 2.6mm, which is pretty much standard for a corporate setup, your full resolution will be 4128x1376. Your Atem's output is at 1920x1080, which means you're scaling up by 2.15x to fill the width, which also means the usable height of your output is just 502 pixels being stretched on a 4m high wall.

[sunray]

4 minutes ago, Anothertom said:

While you may have some equipment to hand, you don't have the right equipment to hand. You're thinking of your Atem as a piece of content, but it's just a switcher. Your content is what you have upstream of the atem. In this scenario you need to replace your atem with something more suitable to the job.

What you need is a piece of software or hardware able to handle the full resolution of your LED wall and map inputs to sections of that full canvas, either a software media server/playout software or hardware presentation switcher. In this situation I'd probably be speccing a PDS-4k or an S3-4k, if the requirements really are that simple. Your Atem mini isn't going to cut it.

If you think even just on the lines of pure resolution. Assuming an LED product at 2.6mm, which is pretty much standard for a corporate setup, your full resolution will be 4128x1376. Your Atem's output is at 1920x1080, which means you're scaling up by 2.15x to fill the width, which also means the usable height of your output is just 502 pixels being stretched on a 4m high wall.

We had this same arrangement a few years back using 2 projectors (and several pairs of 42" repeater screens) and VGA matrix. Whole thing was done in a real hurry so the full screen logo was split on to 2 PC's. Yes very clunky but unexpectedly created minutes before doors opened.

[sleah]

2 hours ago, sunray said:

We had this same arrangement a few years back using 2 projectors (and several pairs of 42" repeater screens) and VGA matrix. Whole thing was done in a real hurry so the full screen logo was split on to 2 PC's. Yes very clunky but unexpectedly created minutes before doors opened.

I've zero experience with such screens, but Sunray made me think......

What about a dual display output PC, each feeding half the wall. Put in in extended desktop and find a way of displaying the logo across the extended desktop. Then change to mirror mode for the presentation. A 'dirty' way of getting the logo over both screens would be set it as the wallpaper in 'span' and auto hide the task bar.

Then while changing between extended and mirror either freeze or mute the wall (assuming the feature is available).

This will obviously only work if the content is only on the PC, the ATEM couldn't really be used in this configuration.

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by sleah

[J Pearce]

12 minutes ago, sleah said:

What about a dual display output PC, each feeding half the wall.

 

The proper version of this is Disguise or QLab or a-n-other media server system. Many of these will also accept a live video input (QLab could use the ATEM mini on USB on a camera cue, Disguise you'd probably take the HDMI out via a SDI adapter then SDI into the server if you've got one of the servers with SDI input) - however, you'd incur a significant latency in doing so, and you'd be much better just renting a proper presentation switch and doing it properly...

[sunray]

2 hours ago, sleah said:

I've zero experience with such screens, but Sunray made me think......

What about a dual display output PC, each feeding half the wall. Put in in extended desktop and find a way of displaying the logo across the extended desktop. Then change to mirror mode for the presentation. A 'dirty' way of getting the logo over both screens would be set it as the wallpaper in 'span' and auto hide the task bar.

Then while changing between extended and mirror either freeze or mute the wall (assuming the feature is available).

This will obviously only work if the content is only on the PC, the ATEM couldn't really be used in this configuration.

 

And that is why I posted our solution. This was fifteen years ago or more and done with tower PC's. We had PC's there with dual screen capability but we simply didn't have the time to deal with such.

The original requirement was for 2 screens to display different things: powerpoint, VHS tapes, cameras, document camera, ultrasound machine. It was simply easier to grab the PP logo page into paint, split and shape it and save to PP in 2 different PC's dedicated to the function, even the PC monitors and foldback video were CRT to give an idea how far back. The biggest issue we had with it was not being able to switch both screens simultaneousely using an Extron 8x8 matrix.

Part of the job was to provide power sockets for visitors laptops and due to the number of foreigners I purchased a load of 4way Shuko leads from Auchen in Calais while on a Sun tokens cheap day out.

I've started waffling, hopefully it's food for thought.

[Paul2327]

Thanks for the information so far. Using a presentation switch can I set the output to do this one screen or dual screen setup using the led wall? Also is there a way to use a media server software without having to buy the rackmount hardware? 

[J Pearce]

Rent in a production switcher and a human who knows how to use one. While they're there get them to show you. 

In terms of software, QLab could do it, but with noticeable latency on the live inputs - it wouldn't be my first choice. You'd need a mac with 4k output - otherwise, as discussed above, you'll have really low resolution. We're all assuming your LED wall processor can handle a surface of this aspect ratio at a sensible resolution, is this the case?
QLab also really wants to work in a linear cuestack fashion, which can be quite restrictive in a more conference type setting, which is why people usually use a production switcher.

You could possibly use a matrix switch to do something a bit simpler, more restrictive, and all over a bit bodgy. Input A is Logo Left, Input B is Logo Right, (choose how you source these), Input 3 is the Atem Mini. Output A is Left, Output B is right. For preshow you'd setup a scene that had A-A and B-B, then have a show scene that was C-A and C-B. 

Once you've got a canvas this wide, if you've got the proper kit you can do much more interesting things. Powerpoint left/right, a logo centre behind the speaker, and a tagline or hashtag etc. across the bottom. Or have live camera left/right, and the powerpoint in the middle, with event themed background/framing.
There's some good examples in the manual for the Barco PDS4K that was recommended upthread.

[Paul2327]

Thats great thanks for your help really appreciated.