TSL managing director Sam Tamplin was looking to invest in the company's first media server, so attended an open day at A.C.'s UK headquarters showcasing the latest creative LED lighting and video technologies, and associated products. Tamplin was so impressed with the Green Hippo's interface and feature set that he purchased a HippoCritter after the event.
The media server was recently used at the UK sales conference of one of the largest global data analysis software providers to the banking sector. SFL Group, who provided projection, staging, sound and event management, contracted TSL to provide lighting equipment and video control for the event.
The conference featured daytime presentations and a guest speech by former athlete Kriss Akabusi, evening gala dinner with a jazz band, and full on club night.
To give the event a creative, cutting-edge technologies feel, the main stage area featured a central high resolution projection screen, flanked either side by low resolution LED screen panels and a lighting rig featuring various LED, moving head and conventional fixtures.
In addition to ensuring the stage was well lit for IMAG, TSL needed to map and play the same video intro sequence clips across both screens simultaneously. This required outputting the video from one clip to two different screen resolutions. Tamplin used the latest Green Hippo software component, VideoMapper, to map the content internally and then output all the data on one 1024 x 768 canvas. He was also able to move the final output windows to wherever the LED or projection screen needed them to be, without needing to change the content map.
The Green Hippo VideoMapper is a new component allowing easy configuration of video screens, with positioning of sections catered for along with rotation and individual colour correction across all parts.
The video and IMAG feeds were controlled from the HippoCritter media server and then triggered along with the lighting from a Jands Vista T2 console.
TSL has also used the HippoCritter to control low resolution LED video at various UK worship events. Tamplin commented, "After looking at a few different media servers, the Hippo's features and usability really stood out. The new VideoMapper feature is fantastic. It is easy to use and opens up a whole load of possibilities for creative LED on the fly. The support from A.C. Video has been great, as always."
(Jim Evans)
