Historic hall transformed with Christie LED wall
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“Conmy Hall was originally built in 1934 as an indoor equestrian facility used by General George Patton,” says Cathy Arevian, CEO & managing director, The Bridge Group. But as the mounted cavalry was phased out, the Hall was converted into a gymnasium and later into an indoor ceremonial area. It’s now the U.S. Army’s principal performance centre, used for presidential functions and military ceremonies, as well as hosting multi-agency briefings and strategy sessions. The Hall, which seats 1200, also hosts US Army band concerts and productions by the Military District of Washington, both of which are open to the public.
Prior to the renovation, the space used two projection screens and large, vinyl-printed maps for multi-agency briefings and strategy sessions. “The equipment and processes became inadequate given the expanding needs and advancements in technology,” says Arevian. “After conducting several events using large format rental equipment and projection, it became clear that the versatility available using this equipment was worth the investment.”
In 2015, the project began, and various technology and configurations were considered. “We knew It had to be state-of-the-art, and configurable to meet the changing needs of the space,” says Scott Williams, COO, CFO and Co-Founder, Quince Imaging.
The Bridge Group, Quince Imaging and project manager VCB Events LLC designed and installed the Christie CorePlus LED video wall, that spans the length of the venue. The wall is divided into three sections: a centre 26ft array, with a 61ft array on each side. The centre array is a pull-out entryway that is suspended on a trolley, which can be retracted with the push of a button.
Managing the Christie CorePlus LED video wall are two Christie Pandoras Box servers and one Pandoras Box manager. “Pandoras Box is managing the uber-wide, 12-million-pixel wall. It also manages the buttons, and houses the wireframes and templates, so a user can easily select one of a dozen looks for the wall,” says Williams. “We used Pandoras Box Widget Designer to configure these solutions.”
Christie Spyder X80, a powerful multi-windowing processor that can manage up to 80 million pixels, manages the inputs from Pandoras Box, the output to the LED wall, as well as sending return feeds to HD broadcast trucks.
“Quince Imaging and The Bridge Group have designed and installed an incredible solution that will serve Conmy Hall and the US Army well for many years to come,” says Jon Litt, senior manager, Christie Government Solutions. “We are so proud and honoured to have Christie solutions included at this historic site and to be able to be used for such significant events.”
