The demand for this service has proven so hot that Steneide has since spun it into a separate company, NW Video Wall, which was chosen to provide the video screen for the California leg of Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers' solo tour.
It all began as a measure to cope with the economic downturn, said Steneide. "I was trying to figure out how to pump up business during this recession, and for a while now I'd been seeing how lighting and video are merging. You look at everything from TV awards shows to concert tours, and all you see are LED video walls. So I said to myself, 'I've got to get a video wall.'"
Steneide attended last year's LDI Show determined to find a portable, easy-to-use affordable LED panel. He was impressed with Elation's EVLED 1024SMD, a 20mm-pixel-pitch medium-resolution transparent LED video screen featuring tri-color SMD LEDs. Lightweight and portable, each modular EVLED panel measures 2.2" x 2.2" and can easily be linked to other panels to form a screen of any required size. Initially, Steneide ordered 30 of the panels, but it soon became apparent he needed more so he has since purchased an additional 30 units.
One thing that stood out about the 4,000-nit panel, said Steneide, was its extreme brightness. "The intensity is just incredible," he remarked. "When you put an image of fire on the screen, you can actually feel the heat."
This brightness and intensity also made an impression on Paul Rodgers' tour manager, who happened to be at a benefit concert in Tacoma where Steneide was working one of his first video wall jobs. "The band had been using another (video wall) product and, at a 20mm pixel spread, our EVLED screen was twice the resolution of theirs and much, much brighter," he said. "As soon as they saw my video wall, they were very impressed." They immediately hired NW Video Wall to supply the video screen for Paul Rodgers' California dates.
(Jim Evans)
