Hippotizer drives visuals for Paralympics party
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Great Britain’s Paralympic stars claimed a total of 124 podium places and were welcomed home from Tokyo with a line-up of artists that included Jamie Cullum, Birdy and Raymond Antrobus. In the live audience, NHS workers gathered for the spectacular, which ran video highlights of the Paralympians’ performances as part of a Channel 4 broadcast.
Transition Video’s Kate Perring worked as server support to screens producer to Louise Segal, who helped to create the production’s visual identity.
“The Boreal+ has great processing power with a 4K signal,” comments Perring. “This kind of strength is needed when using many different visual layers and blended content. It comes with very powerful processing. Hippotizer can do so much in the moment and one can build show looks from multiple elements on the fly.
Transition deployed an Upstage LED screen 12.6m W x 6m H with 1.2m returns either side, and two 7.2m x 4.2m IMAG screens of Roe Visual CB5 tiles, together with two Boreal+ Media Servers with DP Outputs with DUAL SDI Capture. The servers fed the onstage screen graphics and sports montages.
With show programming undertaken by Green Hippo’s Nigel Sadler, Perring utilised the new Timeline software, noting: “This was my first show using new TimelinePlus and it’s a game changer for Green Hippo - they’ve turned a corner with functionality. It is very intuitive and is a safe and secure workspace where everything is locked away while not in use. I heartily recommend it.”
Perring’s broad knowledge of media servers remains focussed on Green Hippo: “Hippo’s strengths are in handling content, flexibility and programming capabilities. With this available, I’m not interested in becoming an expert in anything else.”
Although the creative aspects of the show were demanding and complex, the rewards were tenfold, as Perring explains: “Building the set itself and working out where to place the screens for accessibility was vital, as was looking at how we would occupy the physical space. Teamwork was very important. Being able to show the athletes some appreciation was emotional, and certain moments in the show had us all tearing up. There was a great feeling of inclusivity in the line-up, as well as backstage.
“I’ve never worked in a team that had both female techs and female local crew in so many roles. Production Manager Keely Myers, from Global Touring Office, is forging a path for diversity and it really made a difference in the atmosphere.”
