BEIJING — A series of 11 large circular screens displaying rear-projected imagery and one 30-by-6 meter Element Labs Stealth LED screen were used to introduce the new Montblanc watch collection at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, with content synchronized by eight Hippotizer HD V3s. The event included a custom-scored rock opera called “Journey Through Time,” which was a tribute to the history of timekeeping. Steve Nield was the designer and Neil Trenell of M2 Designs served as programmer for the event.
Creative Technology (Asia Pacific) Co. Ltd. supplied AV for the event, produced by Roger Sansom Productions of Hong Kong. Hippotizer’s distributor in China, Kupo Co. Ltd. of Shanghai, provided additional backup machines.
The show’s visuals were derived using multiple Hippotizer functions. Seven HDs in dual mode drove the various screens, with the eighth machine used for ZooKeeper control and media administration. All Hippotizers had the same media maps and were triggered and programmed by a grandMA Series 1 console with a single NSP run over ArtNet. The rock opera segment of the show was a time-coded segment, and each screen had a dedicated media file.
“Using multiple synchronized servers networked together in this complex setup was a real challenge,” said Trenell. “The servers worked well and all behaved as expected in spite of our rigorous demands. Hippotizer is such a flexible and dependable tool. It really is the Swiss army knife of media servers.”
Nield created a show that integrated lighting and video, using an array of custom media content to create both pre-programmed and on-the-fly effects. Hippotizer’s new ScreenThief plug-in was used to capture a virtual watch face image from a computer connected via HippoNet.
TMB product specialist Loren Barton was on hand to supply training and technical support for some of the new Hippotizer features. “TMB and our partner distributor Kupo Co Ltd. are very proud to have supported such a prestigious event and to have worked with such a distinguished group of professionals.”
For more information, please visit www.ctinternational.com and www.tmb.com/products/hippotizer.