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    Blog Series: Lighting Education

    Tech Talk: Creating Content for Video Walls — Part I

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    Product Engineer Anthony Chiappone proudly stands in front of MVP panels.

    Written by Product Engineer for CHAUVET Professional Anthony Chiappone. 

    Over the course of the last 18 months, LED video wall has become a necessity to large and even medium shows. With this growth, I’ve observed that video editors and video wall specifiers are struggling to keep up with the large variety of video panels in use, mainly due to a lack of communication, education and understanding the application. To give you the necessary basic information and gain confidence working with video, I have prepared a brief two-part guide to why and how you should generate video content.

    Have the right questions—and answers too. As the video wall technician, the video editor will often ask you certain questions in regards to their content creation, such as, “What is the resolution of each section of video wall?” While this is important for a video editor and for you to know, it is equally important to be prepared and have the right answers to these questions.

    • What is the pixel pitch?
    • What are the actual dimensions/ratios of the video wall sections?
    • How much space is between the panels?
    • Should the video be rendered with a mask?
    • Should the video be rendered as a single, large video or as individual video clips for each section of video wall?
    • What is the minimum viewing distance?

    These questions play a key role in content creation. It determines whether the video editor should design live video content, IMAG (image magnification), large or small text, or motion graphics.

    Create according to resolution
    It does no good to have high resolution graphics that look great on the computer screen, only to play it back on very low resolution, 50 mm pixel pitch curtains or LED mesh. And it would be equally wasteful to design very low resolution motion graphics for video wall that is capable of stunning, high resolution video content.

    Understanding LED video walls vs. video projection.
    One of the most deceiving content design obstacles comes when working with lower pixel pitch panels/curtains/mesh that cover a large area (outer dimensions). This means that you may have to design content of 1500×1200 and use a playback software, such as ArKaos MediaMaster Express to shrink it down to 150×120. This is something that is not true when using video projection, which is why you have the learning curve for LED video walls. This requires an understanding of the content creation, panel addressing/mapping software, playback software, and the collaboration of all to implement it successfully.

    Be educated

    What is pixel resolution?
    For the majority of video products, pixel resolution is all you need to know to create the video content, including LCD/plasma screens and projectors. But, LED video walls introduce a new factor: pixel pitch. This is a term that has long been used for computer displays, image scanners, and projectors—aka dot pitch, stripe pitch, or phosphor pitch. The pixel pitch is defined as the space between LEDs on a single panel. So, when you read in the specifications of a video panel that the pixel pitch is 12.5 mm, this means that the center-to-center spacing between LEDs is literally 12.5 mm. In most cases, the vertical and horizontal pixel pitches are the same. But, it may be different.

    Now, why does this matter when creating video content? In the past, the pitches were mostly in micrometers. So, when you have two different displays, with content passing between both of them, the different is difficult to notice. But, when using LED video wall, the pitches are in millimeters, which is much easier to distinguish when building content for a large or small stage event.

    In next month’s second part, I will explain how to create video content for a certain application and will get into streaming process. Until then, digest the knowledge I just shared with you and don’t be afraid to research on your own.

    Demo at Kinetic Lighting Features CHAUVET Professional Fixtures

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    Our dealer from Los Angeles, Kinetic Lighting, recently showcased various CHAUVET Professional lights during a demo. Here are some cool pictures of our lights in action:

    This wall has an artsy look under the light from COLORado 1-Tri Tour wash fixtures.

     

    Legend 412 pixel-mapping moving yokes.

    COLORado Batten 72 Tour linear wash lights.

    The same amazing COLORado Batten 72 Tour lights in green.

    COLORado 1-Tri Tour organized and at work.

     

    Legend 412: different angle, the same performant fixture.

    Competitive COLORado Batten 72 Tour.

    COLORado Batten 72 Tour in blue.

    Richard Cadena Teaches Lighting Design at CHAUVET HQ

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    CHAUVET hosted Richard Cadena, from the Academy of Production Technology, for a three-day seminar  about “Lighting Design and Applications” at its Florida headquarters. Here are some photos of Cadena, sharing his knowledge and passion for lighting with CHAUVET team members.

    Three-point lighting demonstration.

    Cadena explaining one way light is measured.

    Cadena talking group through measuring lux/footcandles.

    In-class, hands-on light lab.

    Light meter testing.

    Also check out our three-part interview of Cadena talking with our own Ford Sellers.
    LD Interview: Take 5 with Richard Cadena, pt. 1
    LD Interview: Take 5 with Richard Cadena, pt. 2
    LD Interview: Take 5 with Richard Cadena, pt. 3

     

    Video in the World of Lighting – Part 3

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    Mike Graham, comfortable in the spotlight.

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    By now, you know what kind of show you are doing and what it is going to look like. The plot is finished up and all of your gear is in pretty rows of road cases on your show site.

    Now what?

    Here are a few things you need to know before you start loading in:

    1. What kind of rigging kits are you using?
    For example, the MVP modular video panels CHAUVET Professional offers use an individual rig kit. That is to say that every point of the panels attaches individually to a clamp and conversely attaches to the hang point of your structure. Another style also used is the rigging bar. Commonly used in higher resolution panels, this system helps keep the panels aligned. On some rig bars, there are no clamps. Instead, eyebolts used as rigging points for cable hold the rig bar to your structure. Knowing this before you get to the show is really important.

    2. What kind of structure are you planning to attach your panels? Are you using truss?
    If you are planning to use straight truss, you may want to think about getting some schedule 40 pipe and attaching it to the truss as opposed to hanging your panels directly to the truss. This trick is useful because no matter how well you plan it out, there will always be a cross bar in the way of one or more of the rigging kits. Using the pipe will make that problem go away and you will be able to put your panels exactly where they need to be. As we all know, panel placement is critical to the alignment of the show. If you are using curved truss, you may want to think about using aircraft cable and turnbuckles to trim out your panels. Again, placement is important and as sure as you are reading this, there will be a crossbar in your way.

    3. How do you plan to run power?  
    Power for video panels is easy to overlook, and hard to fix if you do. I like to plan exact positions for my power drops in my rig. I also take the step of knowing which circuit powers what device. For example, SOCO 1, Circuit 3 is going to power my stage left stack of 16 MVP 18 panels, which means that Circuit 3 needs to have a powerCON female (blue) connector on it. I can further break that down and use a PowerStream 4 to break that run up a little more. This will also keep my cables cleaner and keep my runs of power much shorter. (I prefer to have my power runs as short as possible.)  If you are using a large system, you may have several circuits of power running your system. If that is the case, I strongly suggest running your power from one direction only (left to right, or right to left, as the case may be) so that you can keep your runs clean and simplified. Again, this is where the PowerStream 4 comes in really handy.

    4. How about signal?  
    If you mess up your signal run, you are in for a real bad day. LED Studio—and as far as I am aware, almost every other video panel addressing software—uses the order of signal cabling to locate the position of each panel in your system. It is critical that when you are laying out the signal flow, you follow it exactly. Otherwise correcting this within the software can take hours. You want to have this clear in your preplanning stages.

    Now you are loading in. The key here is to know your plan and go by it. As long as you do that, you should be fine. There are always bumps along the way, but all in all, should not be that bad.  As you put rows of panels in, it is a good idea to power each line and make sure that all of your pixels are working. Use the test button on the back of the panel to turn the panel to white (all LEDs on). This will confirm that you are good to go for LEDs. Once you have that, I would also suggest that every few rows, you send signal and make sure you are getting information from your server to the panels. Send some content to make sure you have your show. The rest of load in is set and repeat.

    Most importantly, be safe in what you are doing. Always keep in mind that you are hanging hundreds of pounds of aluminum, wire, and LEDs in the air above people’s heads. Also, keep in mind that in an outdoor environment, the wind sees a video wall like a big sail. Watch what you are doing. Keep an eye on the weather. Always make sure that your top and side rigging points are secure and no one has left any tools on the panels as they go up in the air.

    Trying New Stuff

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    Mike Graham looking pensive in front of MVP modular video panels.

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    My name is Michael Graham and I have tried broccoli for the first time ever this week. I ended up liking it.

    For the past 37 years I have avoided it like it was some kind of evil stalk of green nastiness on my plate. I have been watching my son actually ask for it for dinner. He’s 5 and at that age, aren’t kids supposed to not want veggies? So I convinced myself to try it. We had ordered take out one night and in there was some chicken with broccoli. While I was dishing everyone’s out, I psyched myself up and ate some. All in all, not bad. You all should have seen the look on my wife’s face.  She has been trying for the past 10 years to get me to eat more veggies.

    How does this relate to lighting?, you may ask. Well, oddly enough, I think that we often feel the same way about new lighting products or ideas. We get it into our heads that there is only one way to design a show and we have our favorite lights that we like to do it with.  We get into a rut and forget that there is more than one way to skin a cat. It is important to take that first bite of broccoli and try new stuff. We as an industry are so lucky to have as many new products as we do. Year after year.

    Look around at what else is going on out there. When is the last time you said, “Wow, that pencil sharpener industry is really evolving.” It is critical for us all on both sides of this blog to try new stuff and not get stuck in the same old same old.

    So, come on, try something new. You might be surprised at how cool it is.

    P.S. We are launching some really cool new pencil sharpeners at InfoComm this week.  Come by, I would love to show you how they work.

    CHAUVET Demo Day at Blue Planet

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    Blue Planet Lighting hosted an open house at their new Las Vegas location, in the Russell Commerce Center just off the Las Vegas Strip, featuring the latest in  CHAUVET Professional LED gear. CHAUVET Central U.S. Sales Manager Jeremy Pace was on hand to discuss and demo the gear which included: Q-Spot 560-LED, Q-Wash 560Z-LED, Q-Wash 260-LED, and Legend 412  moving heads as well as COLORdash Par Tri, COLORado Zoom Tour and the new COLORado 1-Quad Tour static wash lights.

    COLORdash Par Tri, COLORado Zoom Tour and COLORado 1-Quad Tour (L to R)

    Q-Wash 560Z LED, Q-Wash 260-LED and Legend 412 (L to R)

     

     

    Tech Talk: Video in the World of Lighting – Part 2

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    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    Mike Graham looking pensive in front of MVP panels.

    When we left our heroes, they were sitting at the front of a theatre trying to decide — to pixel map or not to pixel map? Ideally, you want to do both, but let’s hope that this decision was made weeks ago during pre-production. The Wall took three years to produce. Most of us don’t have three years to produce a show. If I went to the management of CHAUVET and said I would need three years to produce LDI, they would laugh me out of the room. We need the ability to quickly and effectively get our content out to the stage. This is where LED Studio, Art-Net, Kling-Net, and a whole lot of Ethernet with Neutrik NE8 connectors come into play. By combining these software platforms, we can easily control a whole stage of products that use various protocols to speak the same language. With the CHAUVET MVP Media System outfitted with ArKaos MediaMaster Express, you can manage your pixel mapping of DMX fixtures and all of your video products all in one source. Combine this with a lighting controller that can send and receive Art-Net communication protocol, and now you can completely control everything under one network roof. I am not going to go into how to hook up the system in this tech talk. The interconnection of the system depends a little on what you want to accomplish and a lot the scale of how big you want to go. Again, I recommend checking out the ArKaos manual and the manual of the controller that you are going to be using to trigger your show. The simple fact is that, yes, you can make your show pop with what you have available in front of you. The reason that you want so much control is to ultimately make it easier to program your show. Here are a few tips on ways to do some pre-production setup that will save you a ton of time onsite.

    1. Know what you’re “looking” for. Unlike normal show programming, when you are planning out video, you want to have all of your “looks” in the can. In the “video” tab, “looks” stands for video clips. You want to show up with your clips ready and filed. This means that you will really need to know what you intend to do on this show. I highly recommend a blog that some guy wrote called “Zen in the Art of Entertainment Lighting.” It’s a three part series and applies to this conversation.

    2.  Accessibility is the key. When you file your video clips, make sure that they are done in such a way that you can quickly access them when you need to. In ArKaos MediaMaster Express, you can set up your folders for specific songs. You also have 64 visual presets per page with 64 pages at your fingertips. You can easily set your clips on each page and have each individual page can be a song or scene of its own. You can also have up to eight layers of video running at the same time. Since you can also tell the video preset where on your playback surface you want your video to show up, having these eight layers really handy. Since ArKaos MediaMaster Express was designed for the lighting professional, it is stunningly easy for us to use.

    3. Keep your eye on the plot. While you are getting all of this set up, have a sketch of the show plot that you are working with. Honestly, it can be napkin CAD, or the finest of visualizers, but have that sketch handy while you are working on setting all of this up. That sketch needs to include all of the elements that you want to send video content to.

    4. Finalize your fixture layout and DMX address scheme. When you are setting up your pixel mapping, this is absolutely critical that the DMX addressing is correct and done before you start working on this.

    5.  Save early and save often. Goes without saying, but just sayin’.

    6.  Keep your products in mind when you are choosing clips. Keep in mind that low resolution and high contrast clips will look much better than high resolution and low contrast clips on higher pixel pitch. Big looks with simple content.

    Whether you are planning on busking, pre-programming and operating live, or using time code, you should now be just about ready to load in.  What to expect on show site?

    … That is for another day.

    Planning, Panic, and Preparation

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    A Look Behind the Trade Show Curtain
    by Carmen Diaz, trade show coordinator for CHAUVET

    My little countdown clock tells me it’s less than 25 days till show site. That means I’m getting down to the wire for shipping, rental and production. InfoComm, it’s big, it’s AV, and it’s breathing down my neck like Brad Pitt in Interview with a Vampire (which really isn’t too bad of a prospect… rawr).

    Let’s take stock of what we’ve done so far… We have two 53-foot semis hauling 300+ fixtures 2,518 miles to the Las Vegas Convention Center. We’ve placed our orders for 400 AMPS of three-phase electrical power, carpet, a monster distro, labor, fabric, and lights. I’ve got over 200 emails regarding this tradeshow alone, and this is just one of three shows I’m working on currently.

    It’s a lot of work and meticulous attention to detail to make a trade show worth the substantial investment an 800-square-foot booth entails. I’ve got a three-inch binder filled with schematics, order confirmations, maps, and more check lists than I can shake a stick at. Even as I write this blog post, I keep thinking of more small tasks I still need to do, like get candy for the booth, and silverware for lunches, and a million other “unexpected” problems you have to prepare for “just in case.”

    But through all of this planning, panic, and preparation there is the satisfaction of a finished product and a beautiful booth to “oooh” and “awe”. There’s this unbelievable sense of accomplishment that you get when the build is complete and the show opens. Lights are blaring, music playing softly in the background, sales people chattering as the first of the attendees streams into the hall. I try to take a moment to look around in the first few hours, as the traffic ramps up and the exhibitors really start crowding around your booth, to enjoy everyone’s hard work paying off… and maybe even get a tasty beverage as my reward.

    Here is a look at last year’s booth for you to “oooh” and “awe” at (although this year’s will blow it out of the water!):

    CHAUVET booth at InfoComm 2011 just before the door opens.

    Zen and the Art of Entertainment Lighting, Part 3

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    Mike Graham looking pensive in front of MVP modular video panels.

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional 

    I can remember sitting in the audience during a show on one of the ships, I was auditing.  There was a banjo player on stage and he was working on creating a mood. He was trying to create the image of sitting on his grandfather’s front porch in the evening learning how to play the banjo.  All of a sudden, every single moving light in the rig started doing ballyhoo. In Technicolor.  It looked like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The mental image, destroyed for the audience and the banjo player was about as mad as a banjo player can get. The point is that in a situation like this, on can accomplish more with less. More often than not, this applies.

    In the above case, I have to think that the programmer simply lost their mind for a minute. Clearly, they were not thinking about the talent onstage. Or how to serve the show best. In a stage show, such as a rock concert, or even on a cruise ship, you have a ton of lights in the rig because you have to be able to create tons of different looks.

    A rock show is completely different from the straight play I wrote about before. One of the great things about moving lights is that you can position them wherever you want with the roll of a wheel, a slide of a fader, or a stroke of a key. The basic principles of front, side, top, down, and back lighting still apply. However, now it is ok to add in a little flavor—BUT ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. For a great lesson in this, I highly recommend checking out the U2 concert video for Rattle and Hum. Largely shot in black and white, you can clearly see how certain songs call for strong beams of light to position down onto each member of the band at certain times. The end result is absolutely stunning.  Some of my favorite looks are just simple shafts of light coming from asymmetrical positions. I really like to have odd angles coming in from at least two positions. If you have good spot light operators, it is even better!

    Moving lights can also lend themselves to becoming an evil temptation. Yep, they move, change color at the blink of an eye, and you can even drop in a gobo. For some programmers, this is like putting a Twinkie in front of the sound guy. Just because a light has a particular function, it does not mean you have to use it every cue. Once I discovered the move-in-black function on the Wholehog II, it was like someone gave me the key to life. I learned how to use moving lights as a conventional light (conventional lights are lights that don’t move, have one color in them, and are focused to a specified location). Now, I could make these big “statement” looks like I saw in all of these concerts I had seen before. I was also able to effectively use the tools at hand and create a Zen-like state in my shows.  It gave me the subtle lighting show that I wanted to have without having distractions. I found that I was much more at peace with the whole process once I figured out that you don’t have to overdo it.

    Another important part in the Zen of programming is that you, as a programmer and designer, must be in a place in your mind where you are at peace. You must be clear of mind so that you can make good choices. In order to be clear of mind, you must know what you are programming and for what type of show. Know your act and know your audience. If you are doing a Rush show, go big with big beam looks and excitement. If you are doing something that calls for an intimate design, then that is what you should do…create a mood. Becoming part of the environment is critical to this. (I am not saying to become the lights, but hey, who am I to argue if you do?) The goal should be to feel at ease with your lights. If you watch a true master of design and programming at work, it looks easy. A true Zen master will be so in-tune with what is going on around them that they are completely aware of their surroundings. For me, if I am able to, I will video tape a rehearsal and work from it. This gives me the ability to design and program without the act there if I have to. This way, I don’t have the pressure of having to rush to get my looks down. I also try to be alone. Too often, people who are “just trying to help” will really ruin your Zen thing. Turn off the cell phone, put on your headphones and get into your zone.

    Keep in mind as you go, “Does this look natural?”  How does the color reflect the mood of the subject? Is the lighting conveying this mood? Should this be a sharp beam effect or diffused? Does this call for a gobo breakup? Do I need a strobe light hit here? Every lighting change must be motivated. I can remember hearing over and over in acting class, “What is your motivation?”  Well, what is it?  Is there a change in the action that calls for you to write a cue? Did your principal actor just cross from stage right to stage left? Did your band just change tempo? Was there a murder on stage? If the answer is yes, then write a cue. If there is no change in action on stage, then there is no need. I’m sorry, but “Because it’s in the script” typically is not good enough and may need to be challenged. So challenge it. Wisely.

    Now go forth, young Grasshopper, there is nothing more to teach today.

    Read Zen and the Art of Entertainment Lighting, Part 2
    Read Zen and the Art of Entertainment Lighting, Part 1