• Grass Valley (GVG) Turbo 2 (T2) iDDR HD video player
• Barco ImagePRO II HD
• Barco ScreenPRO II HD

Developed by Digital Antics’ developer Quintin Willison as a Windows application in VB.Net.

The software talks to the Barco ScreenPRO devices in exactly the same way as Barco’s own ScreenPRO II Controller (/Encore).  This means our ScreenPRO implementation is very reliable.

Because the Turbo 2 devices are so new (Creative Technology USA own the first six decks produced by GVG!) there were a number of protocol features which had not yet been implemented by GVG.  For this reason Quintin and Darren worked together to formulate a solution involving interfacing the Turbo 2 GPIO port to the control PC’s serial ports (including Darren constructing a bespoke “Darren’s GPIO I/O Box” device!) to Quintin’s requirements specification.

The show operators (John Krebser and Matt Fabienke) now have single button operation to prepare and run ‘drop in’ camera shows every 15 minutes.  The software automates the control and switching of all devices required to run a show (that’s two Turbo 2s, four ImagePros and two ScreenPros).

Digital Antics’ developer Quintin Willison developed the solution in just two weeks.  He then spent a few days on-site for rehearsals and the first show (Nottingham, UK) to deploy, test and debug where required.

The Eddie Izzard Stripped Tour has since been to Sheffield, Newcastle, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Cardiff, Manchester, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, London (The O2 and Wembley Arena), Dublin, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Oslo, Chicago, Boston and New York.

Dates still to follow in 2010 include Dallas, Oakland and Los Angeles.

The touring engineer for XL Video responsible for the Twitter system is James Morden who has had remote support by telephone and e-mail from Digital Antics’ when required.  The system has been operated by Victoria Pyke - the tweet moderator!

The solution consists of two components:

• The Tweet Presenter Console runs on a laptop computer and maintains a direct connect (via Internet uplink) to Twitter’s servers to receive incoming tweets from Eddie as well as tweets directed to Eddie (i.e. public replies).  The operator is able to very quickly approve or trash tweets as they come in from the public.  Eddie’s tweets, of course, go straight to screen (taking less than a second from send on his iPhone to appearing on screen - yes, you read that correctly!).
• The Tweet Presenter Graphics Output runs on a desktop computer which runs in ‘appliance’ (/ black box) mode to output the tweets to screen.  In this case the output of this computer is scan converted in order to run in to the PPU as it is being luma-keyed over the top of camera images of the crowd as they walk in.  The Console communicates with the Graphics Output over a local area network.

The Tweet Presenter software is available directly from Digital Antics.  Call Quintin on +44 (0) 1438 360 058 for more information or an informal chat.  Alternatively if you are looking for a complete video system (screens, cameras, engineering, etc..) as well then call Malcolm Mellows at XL Video on +44 (0) 1442 849 400.

There are a number of photo galleries which were available on our old website which have not yet been transported over to this new WordPress based system.

Please bear with us while we work on getting this data formatted for the new website and our apologies if something you were expecting to find is no longer here.

Mark’s work is one of four pieces to be displayed on the ‘Big 4′ to celebrate the channel’s 25th anniversary year and was unveiled on Monday 4th February 2008 hot on the heals of the previous three month installation by Nick Knight.  All coming under the banner of The Channel 4 Big Art Project.

Two VidiKiosk systems have been installed.  The first sits in a dedicated booth forming part of the ‘Big 4′ logo while the other sits under the booth pointing out on to the pavement in order to allow easy access for disabled visitors.

Both systems are operated by the public using illuminated buttons.  Red for record start/stop.  Yellow to review their recorded clip.  And, finally, Green to submit it for the Channel 4 editors to consider for inclusion on the Plasma screens adorning the ‘Big 4′ logo.

In addition to the VidiKiosk software and computers to run it on Digital Antics also supplied a solid state MPEG player to run the Plasma screens during the day as well as a control solution to enable this playback to automatically stop during night hours in order to comply with local council regulations.

Photos

The naked ‘Big 4′ before Mark’s artwork and Plasma screens had been attached.

Mesmer’s Dick Straker looks down from his step-ladder-perch during installation as he puts finishing touches to the very compact arrangement of PCs, hard drives, audio processing equipment, keyboards and mice hidden away in the ceiling void above the main booth.

The main booth fully assembled and ready for visitors.

At the AV Awards presented by AV Magazine and announced at London’s Park Lane Hilton hotel on 12th October 2007:

• Best Interactive Media Project of the Year
• Best AV / IT Project of the Year
• Grand Prix Award for AV Project of the Year

At the Event Awards presented by Event Magazine in 2007:

• Gold in the Best Exhibition Feature category
• Silver for the Most Effective Event activity by sector in the ‘Exhibition: Automotive’ group

At the BIMA Awards presented by the British Interactive Media Association at the Midnight Gardens in the Truman Galleries on 29th November 2007:

• Most prestigious new media award in the best Business to Consumer category

Solution

The Aquarium already had an existing system in place for taking and processing green screen shots but it was clunky in process and cumbersome in use.

They approached us with a number of problems. We’ve implemented a number of features of our ChromaPose solution to solve these:

• Replaced the highly manual system of transferring photos from the photo point to the processing position at the tills via memory card with a high speed network link.
• Replaced the old ‘cloak room’ style tickets that customers were given at the photo point to take to the tills to collect their prints, with a receipt printer generating unique barcodes for each visitor’s batch of photos. These are then scanned at the tills to instantly recall the batch on screen for processing.
• Replaced the camera and flash kit at the photo point with studio grade flash guns and a fully tethered solution for the camera meaning that it is constantly powered and transfers photos directly to the local rack and then the remote tills without any manual operator intervention required.

We have replaced everything except their original dye sublimation photo printers. Our ChromaPose software was able to seamlessly support the incumbent printers with higher quality, more accurate results than the previous solution had been achieving.

Customer Experience

As per the Aquarium’s requirement to take photos in one location and then print them in another we developed a smooth workflow to ensure a friendly yet immersive experience for the customers:

1. They wander around Zone 6 of the Aquarium (the Atlantic Corridor) and see the impressive green screen photography area.
2. They approach the touch screen at the entrance where they can select a layout as well as enter their name. This touch screen is driven by the local computer which is running our ChromaSelect software.
3. They are beckoned on to the performance area (bespoke chromakey green rubber floor tiles and curtain). The photographer interacts with them ‘paparazzi style’ to goad them in to posing for an action shot. As each shot is taken we synchronise three separate flash guns to ensure the scene is perfectly lit (two Bowens studio flash units on the chromakey curtain and a camera mounted flash to light the subject). Each shot instantly transfers to the local computer and is displayed on a TFT screen which is visible to both the photographer and the customer so that they can judge whether they’re happy with the shot. The customer is allowed to take as many photos as they like in this manner until they are happy.
4. The photographer steps on to a foot switch which tells the local computer that this customer’s batch of photos is complete and prompts the system to print a receipt for them which includes a unique bar code to be scanned in later. The customer is advised that they should carry on their Aquarium tour and that they can optionally have their photo printed in Zone 12 of the Aquarium.
5. While the customer carries on with their Aquarium tour, the local computer transfers their batch of photos to the till machines in a matter of seconds so that they’re ready to be recalled with a scan of the bar code later on.
6. The customer arrives at Zone 12 after having (hopefully) safely stowed their bar coded receipt somewhere on their person!
7. One of the till operators (we have two tills in this installation running in parallel) scans the customer’s bar code in to our ChromaPose software and their photos appear on screen. Using the simple touch screen interface the operator selects one of the photos that the customer would like processed and is immediately taken to the compositing view. At this point the customer can be scaled and positioned. Optionally the chromakey settings can be tweaked (in case of subtle adjustments required to cater for those wearing green clothing). In addition the customer’s name and selected layout can be changed.
8. Once the customer is happy with the composite, it is then printed to one of the local printers depending on the medium selected. Currently the Aquarium supports key rings, fridge magnets, mouse mats and 6×8 framed prints however the system is fully configurable and plans are afoot for additional options in the future! An exchange of cash and job done.
9. These finished composites are optionally sent to the plasma screens around the Aquarium as teasers. The plasma screens are fed from a computer running in the Aquarium’s AV room running our ChromaDisplay software. We have run the video signal from this computer to the Sony plasma screens over a CAT5 cabling system at near HD resolution (1280×768 - native of the plasmas). Our use of DirectX and XNA technology in the ChromaDisplay software means that these displays are impactful and super-smooth in their animation of both static advertising stills as well as dynamic content generated by both the ChromaSelect and ChromaPose systems.

As usual Virgin Mobile IT team staff operated the main stage MMTS rigs at both sites themselves. Digital Antics operators Iain Rendle and Philip Plant handled the VMU systems in Hylands Parks (Chelmsford, Essex) and Digital Antics’ operators Paul Scullion and Nathan Lance were at the helm in Weston Park (Staffordshire).

Despite the rain the thumbs were still busy and MMTS handled thousands of messages over the course of the weekend with the text messages feed on the main stage screens often forming the main form of entertainment for the soggy crowd between acts.

The system was installed by Digital Antics’ engineers Quintin Willison and Raoul Mohamdee and then self-operated by the Cross Sports staff who were ably assisted by LTA volunteer staff.

Another year at Wimbledon and another 5,000 plus photos taken over the two week period.

The London O2 Wireless festival attracts over 100,000 visitors each year to Hyde Park promising big name acts like David Gray, Kaiser Chiefs, Faithless, Massive Attack and Basement Jaxx, amongst dozens of others. The festival has been running in London since 2005 and Digital Antics have been supplying MMTS for O2 Wireless since the beginning.

Hundreds of messages would arrive every hour once the previous hours’ images were displayed following sponsor advertisments and music videos. The general gap between bands would be roughly half an hour so there was plenty of time to display every message received.

Digital Antics’ MMTS Operator Richard Fish commented:

With hundreds of images being downloaded every hour it was important to keep on top of it all. The MMTS software does all the hard work for you: you simply check for new messages, view the thumbnailed image and add it to a playlist. Breaking the MMS messages up with a few O2 logos here and there ensured the screens were constantly in motion and really added to the crowd experience. Quite why so many people enjoy seeing their pets on the big screen is beyond me but as long as they’re texting, we’re happy!

MMTS is now a festival veteran and a familiar sight to many having been employed at over 10 major festivals within the past three years. Its robust operational characteristics and capability to show SMS, MMS or both in front of tens of thousands of people makes it the popular choice for many festival organisers wishing to add additional, dynamic feeds for their large scale LED screens.

MMTS is designed to collect, collate and display both text and photo messages on big screens at live events.

The content displayed to the big screens was separated into two sections: a constantly running ticker of text messages along the bottom and alternating band video and photo messages on the larger upper section. SMS and MMS messages were vetted continuously throughout the three days so as not to offend anyone!

Digital Antics’ operator Paul Scullion was on hand over the course of the weekend to operate the system and ensure things ran smoothly.