Video across three screens

[Thomas Leong]

Hi,

Advice is to try your idea out with a short piece well before you go into final production for the real thing.

One of the common and proven reliable methods in the last few years has been to use Dataton’s Watchout software, or AvStumpfl’s Wings Platinum. Both work on a Master PC/node controlling Slave PCs/nodes (in your case, Master + 3 Slaves). Each PC must have a licensed dongle in order for the software to output to an external device/monitor/projector (read: 4 dongles in your case). The software is free to download and use, but as afore-mentioned, in order to output one must have the licensed dongle attached.

An option is to produce the graphics yourself, and leave the outputting to a professional rental house that has the configured PCs, dongles, and plasmas to stage it for you. You can then work with the rental house on the delivery requirements (resolutions, type of files, etc) for your graphics…and concentrate on what you do best.

best of luck,
Thomas Leong

[Gordon Campbell]

Cheers may just use a rental house for the set-up

[Cody Campbell]

There is another option that have I used many many times in the past and its far cheaper than these options. Depending on the plasma you use, It may have the option to blow up the image to 3x or 4x then slide the image to the portion you want on each screen. I did this in a club once that had 3 screens behind the dj and the process only took like 20 minutes to complete. The owners were so impressed they doubled my vj fee for the night for showing them how to do it.

“Just because noone understands you does not make you an artist”

[Simon Stutts]

It may require more $$$ and setup than you are looking to put into this, but I’d recommend Pro Video Player. (https://www.renewedvision.com/pvp.php)

You set up 1 machine with a copy of the software for every screen, and then slave all the computers to 1 master computer. It allows you to synchronize content across multiple screens, while at the same time letting you switch between videos on the fly. I work with a multi-state youth concert/speaking tour that uses a PVP setup to run synchronized content across as many as 5 screens, and this system has been great for us. (We also used it to run a 3-screen setup where the 3 large screens acted as a “live” digital set for on-stage actors.)

Maybe way more than what you are looking for in this circumstance, but wanted to recommend it just the same in case you or others come across a need for multi-screen operations on a later project.

[Mark Suszko]

There is also one more new tool came out somewhat recently, it is a three-head video output adapter, basically you make one giant comp in aftereffects and this triple-head gizmo will simply split it three ways to three projectors, in full rez, which reduces the complexity of these projects and the cost of showing them by a large amount. Removes all the syncing-up multiple computer platform issues.

I’m trying to remember which COW forum I saw that in, it was in the last three months or so, and it may be a Blackmagic product or not, my brain is fried after spending the week live-switching the governor’s impeachment hearings for the entier planet to see, adn I’m spending my weekend unconscious… I would check the Final Cut, Live/Stage, Corporate, and Events forums for the last couple months and see if it pops up.

[Thomas Leong]

That would be Matrox’s TripleHead2go device, sort of a 1-in, 3-out device, without switching functions.

Haven’t used it personally, but it has been said that one does lose some functionality such as re-positioning and/or manoeuvring individual segments on each output, etc…but then again, if it is one large comp, no further manipulating is required.

I do, however, have one big question mark on using such a device though: the PC’s processing power and its sub-systems to run a 4:1 super high res video file at 25 or 30fps as the case may be, without hiccups. Another problem would be choosing the codec to output such a video, and run it as a single file. The triplehead2go is probably more suited for Desktop extensions and Powerpoint slides, rather than 4:1 super high res video.

Personally I would still prefer distributed computing under a Master controller over Ethernet, albeit at a higher cost, but both reliability and flexibility have been proven…especially to a live audience.

Thomas Leong