MIAMI – For The Who's performance at the The Bridgestone Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show, the 3,055 Barco MiStrips incorporated into the custom video deck displayed arrows and other linear graphics that defied the non-linear arrangement of the MiStrips themselves. The design team used a beta version of VideoMapper, a software component to be included in an upcoming version of Green Hippo's Hippotizer HD media server software. Similar in concept to Hippotizer's PixelMapper for DMX fixtures, VideoMapper gives video designers a way to map multiple LED video displays, tiles or strips, taking into account their physical arrangement and the physical spaces between them. VideoMapper supports resolutions up to 8192 x 8192.
The video processor of many creative surface products is limited to simple horizontal/vertical placement of fixtures and does not allow for their random positioning, or physical spaces between them.
VideoMapper addresses this problem by grouping pixels and sending them to designated parts of the output raster. Any pixel can be sent to any x and y position in the raster, separating the output of the server from the real world placement of the surfaces. This allows LED display components to be configured in any arrangement, with or without spaces, at any angle and in any configuration.
Another feature of VideoMapper is its ability to color-balance each output device or fixture separately. This allows color matching across a collection of different devices, or compensation for minor inconsistencies between different units of any one product.
Using normally rendered content, any video display product – LED panel, strip, tube or other device – can be angled, scaled, and placed anywhere within a virtual canvas, and have its source image supplied from any part of any existing video feed.
Lee Lodge served as creative producer of the screen graphics used for the Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show. Jason Rudolph was the media server programmer and handled the programming and mapping. Matt Waters provided technical support.
The 40-piece video deck was built by BNR Scenery, with 109 critical connections just for video. The MiSTRIPs were provided by XL Video, as was the UVA d3 Show Production Suite used for the show's media development process. The show's content delivery system, comprised of Hippotizer HD media servers, was provided by VER.
Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers are distributed in North America and Asia by TMB.
For more information, please visit www.tmb.com
