For the seventh year running, Hippotizer by Green Hippo was the media server of choice at the Academy Awards, broadcast from Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Feb. 22. But if the brand hasn’t changed, the crew found a new visual solution with Hippotizer’s new V4 hardware and software system.
Green Hippo noted that just one V4 Taiga performed a visual workload that would have previously required at least three “Hippo HDs.” It drove six video outputs, feeding all projection and LED screen content on the main stage, taking the audience from a vintage theatre façade to Selma, Alabama’s historic Edmund Pettus Bridge.
In addition, in the show’s screens control room, a V4 Boreal provided live 3D visualization of the entire theatre and stage, including all media content, giving the programming team both accurate real-time and pre-viz representations of the show as required, including the moving screens.
“This was the first high-profile use of V4, and everything worked like a charm,” noted Green Hippo special projects director Nigel Sadler. “LED content and projection graphics were played back from the Taiga and sent via the broadcast truck and through to the LED screens and Barco projectors. A single Taiga with six DVI outputs did it all flawlessly.”
“An exciting element of V4 is the Visualizer, built into the familiar ZooKeeper interface software,” Sadler continued, noting that it was used extensively during the Oscars ceremony. “The Visualizer allows the operator to simulate a whole building or set with all the screens and/or projection elements, and see how everything looks when fed with the content and effects from the Hippotizer system in real-time, of if required, as a preview before a look is actually sent to stage — all depicted in realistic hi-def quality — giving a God-like view, if you will, of the designer’s creation.”
“The market response to Hippotizer V4 has been remarkable,” said TMB’s Hippotizer product manager, Nicole Rizzo. “The success at this year’s Oscars reinforces what we’re hearing from designers and programmers everywhere, that V4 has raised the bar, setting a new standard for processing power and output capability.”
The new Hippotizer V4 range includes Taiga, Boreal, Karst, and Amba models, with various output capabilities and all the renowned Hippotizer components and features, plus SHAPE 3D mapping tool, STRATA Caddy SSD System, and improved ZooKeeper UI, now with 3D pre-visualization.
Lee Lodge was co-producer of the show and is credited as the main creative force behind all broadcast and stage graphics. Jason Rudolph served as screens coordinator and main server programmer for the show. VER provided the screens control equipment, including the Hippotizer gear, for the ceremony. Hippotizer is distributed in the Americas by TMB.
Correction: A previous version of this posting mis-identified the Academy Awards venue as the Kodak Theatre; the venue is now known as the Dolby Theatre. PLSN regrets the error.
