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McCann Systems and IAC tap Vista Systems’ Spyders for Giant Video Wall
Manhattan’s new Hudson River-hugging IAC Building, headquarters of Barry Diller’s Internet empire, is turning heads for a number of reasons.
The billowing, frosted-glass edifice, which has been called a ship of glass, is acclaimed architect Frank Gehry’s first building in New York. It’s home to Diller’s vast web business holdings, which encompass 60 specialized and global brands. And its impressive, curving lobby features a pair of video walls designed to leave visitors and guests breathless.
Vista Systems’ Spyder plays a key behind-the-scenes role in making it possible for the giant video walls to display an array of multi-layered, edge-blended imagery. The bigger of the two video walls is, at approximately 11 feet high and 120 feet long, one of the largest seamless screens in the world displaying one of the highest pixel counts ever. The walls routinely display looping IAC promos but can also be used to support live presentations and high-profile events in the building’s amazing new space.
Vista Systems' Spyder is a hardware video processor that goes beyond the limitation of single displays to create large pixel mapping over multiple displays and over many different types of displays, such as projection screens, LED walls, tiling cubes, LCDs and more. Spyder's universal outputs and format choices support virtually any display device.
The unique architecture of Spyder allows a resolution-independent environment with no restrictions to the resolution of a single source or a single display. Multiple displays may be used to increase the resolution and size of what viewers see beyond what any single device can handle. By using Spyder to drive multiple displays greater brightness, image quality and resolution is achieved.
The Spyder delivers power and versatility in a small, 3 rack-unit frame size. The system’s new DX4 output card option packs four outputs in one frame slot allowing 11 channels in one 3RU frame. By adding a matrix switcher of the desired format, any source on the matrix can be utilized on any layer within the system. Add another matrix switcher of a different format and virtually any source is available to the Spyder at any time.
The IAC Building lobby’s big video wall, a seamless glass surface from Stewart, is fed by a complement of 18 DPI 1400x1050 projectors. Nine channels of Dataton WATCHOUT generate widescreen moving backgrounds. Eight Spyder frames with a total of 32 inputs and 18 outputs enable seamless display of any single source across the huge screen; Spyder also layers multiple Picture In Picture (PIP) windows anywhere on the screen’s seamless backgrounds. A large Autopatch matrix switcher and a DVI matrix switcher figure in the system’s front end.
The configuration of the big video wall takes advantage of an important feature of Spyder’s DX4 output card option. The screen’s size and shape require that the output of 18 DPI projectors be rotated 90 degrees, to 1050x1400 pixel resolution, to display more than 15Kx1400 pixels.
The DX4 output card in Spyder permits the rotation and rescanning of outputs from the landscape mode to the portrait mode, so all the media displayed is oriented correctly on the vast video wall, without rotating inputs. That means producers can build media normally since the rotation and rescanning takes place inside Spyder.
The same process happens with the IAC Building’s smaller video wall which is three projectors wide. All of the projectors sit pointing straight up, reflecting images off a mirror system and then onto the video walls.
Also unique to Spyder is its parallel expansion capability. Layers, outputs and pixel capacity can be expanded with the addition of Spyder frames creating one massive, seamless wall. For the IAC Building’s large video wall Spyder is processing over 21 million pixels in a seamless, widecreen image.
In addition, Spyder’s robust and deep external control interface enables a Pacific Interactive control system to control not only Spyder but also the lights, audio, lobby window shades, WATCHOUT and DDRs to create an entire show experience.
About Vista Systems
Vista Systems was recently acquired by Christie, a global leader in visual solutions for business, entertainment and industry, to create a comprehensive source for imaging processing and projection solutions. The acquisition combines the power and flexibility of Vista's video switchers and real-time windowing and composition products with the power, performance and reliability of award-winning Christie projection systems. Vista Systems’ switchers have become the industry standard for live multiple-destination video and data mixed signal switching. For more information on Vista Systems, visit their Web site at www.vistasystems.net.