Club AV Pty Ltd, a well respected installation and design company for over twenty years, installed the giant video wall - a task that both consultants and others said could not be done.
"The requirement was very difficult to work with," explained Andrew Wood, Queensland operations manager for Club AV. "The Client wanted a full forty metre digital video system that would handle the requirements of a unique experience for his patrons as well as handling any colour, video or image for the venue if needed for special events.
"After drawing up the proposed system with our suppliers we had the client come and inspect the proposed system and, needless to say, this was only the start of a challenging and frustrating systems design. Basically, at the meeting, what was presented and what was required were two totally different things. However, after returning to the white board and further conversation with our suppliers, we were able to bring both systems together as one which was obviously more than pleasing to our client."
From the moment the client asked about digital images in a video wall Wood's instant thought was the Martin Maxedia. Maxedia imagery, interfaced with a video scaler and displayed through 10 LCD projectors, creates a screen 4m high x 40m wide in the Club's Poker Machine room.
"Being the fact that it is a product designed to bring together the lighting and video engineer in a production environment used mainly on LED panels or large projectors, no one had tried or done what we planned to do. After speaking with Show Technology (Martin's Australian distributor) this is the first Maxedia installed permanently in a venue of this kind in the country.
"There were several reasons why we chose Maxedia," Wood continues. "First, Maxedia was able to handle all requirements of image, video and anything else we could throw at it. We had to leave the system running with staff members from the venue in control - remembering that these staff had never used nor seen a simple lighting board - yet we were able to give them quick easy options with the Maxedia. They have full control just as an LD would. Maxedia really gave us simple and sophisticated control.
"The system is really easy to operate and if you do get it wrong you can easily start again with little effort, Maxedia really gave us a heap of useful renders straight out of the box. It was very easy to integrate, and as we have a processor set-up to allow the 40 odd metres of vision, we were able to make a template for the client to simply drag any picture, image or movie file in to the system. So, in actual fact, we are currently using Maxedia to effectively process and layer the images as required."
Wood uses both Maxedia stock footage and custom content. "I must say the stock footage is some of the best footage I've seen. A lot of the clients' requests were already there as stock - we have added corporate logos and had some really funky stuff added. We currently are adding the next stage which will see the addition of DMX interfacing to it to recall. We have been testing the jackpot link up with the gaming machines and also adding another matrix output to serve to Maxedia We actually run some video feed back loops into the system for an extra 'wow' factor.
"In reality the Maxedia did exactly what we wanted - every thing that was required we achieved with little time spent. Remembering that it is operated daily by hospitality staff, it was the most suitable product that was available for what we wanted."
Club AV also commissioned a digital video processor for the v
