The fast, intuitive Ai Media Server - which has become an integral engine for some of the world's most ambitious visual events - was used to map the graphics projected onto three giant structures for the 2000-strong party at the luxury Aria Resort to welcome in 2013.
"I chose to use the Ai server because of its ability to work with 3D mapping and to handle multiple projection devices internally," says Vickie Claiborne, product specialist, lighting & digital media for PRG, which supplied all of the lighting, video, truss, as well as lighting design and show staff for the VIP event. "Add these groundbreaking features into a media server that can be controlled either independently or via a lighting console, and you've got a media server with a tremendous range of possible applications."
For the 3D mapping structures, MGM Resorts Events' executive designer King Dahl constructed three huge structures around the Aria's Bristlecone Ballroom - two at 92' long and 16' tall, and the third a smaller structure at 46' long by 8' tall. The structures were mapped using custom 3D content created specifically for the event and timed to music by Pacifica Films. Claiborne utilised the Ai's ability to scale content proportionally to use the same content in all three locations without having to create a different set of content for the smaller model.
The result was a visual feast combining elements of colour, texture and energy while also featuring structure-specific videos that show various effects like outlining the structure, highlighting specific parts of the structure at specific times of the night, and mapping the NYE Countdown to the structure in a unique way.
Two active Avolites Media T8 servers supplied content to all three structures. The outputs of one T8 were divided and sent to each of the two larger 92' structures, using 3 outputs per structure. Two outputs of the second T8 server were used to cover the third smaller 45' structure. The Ai Servers were networked together, and could easily share content and scene information via syncing.
"The Ai's internal blending capabilities meant that we did not need a Watchout or Spyder system to achieve a multiple projector blend," continues Claiborne. "It also meant that all the projectionist had to do was turn on the projectors, even them out in terms of scale and size, and then the Ai Media Server did all the rest of the blend work including the pixel blend overlap area."
Aria Technical Services oversaw the technical components of the NYE 2013 party featuring eight production numbers as well as a live 14 pc. band, four singers, and troupe of 48 dancers, and a DJ. Each one of the high energy dance productions featured custom video content on the structures that was timed to the music and in some cases, triggered via SMPTE timecode.
(Jim Evans)
