[Walter Soyka]

I use a Logitech Cordless Optical TrackMan — a right-handed, index-finger trackball — and a Wacom tablet. I’ve got them both connected to my system at the same time.

The trackball is way easier on my wrists than the mouse was, though it took me about a week before I was really used to it. In addition to the right and left click, it’s got five other programmable buttons (plus you can press the scroll wheel as a sixth button). I use that most of the time, and grab the pen any time I need to draw or do any fine masking.

Walter Soyka
Keen Live, Inc.
Digital Media Design & Technology

[Walter Soyka]

Hi Chaz,

First, I’d make sure the monitors accept VGA input. Next, I’d rent a hi-res switcher like a Folsom Presentation Pro (which will accept both your VGA from the laptop and composite, Y/C, or component from the DVD player) and outputs a VGA signal. Also rent a VGA distribution amplifier (which is essentially a powered splitter). Run one cable from the DA to each monitor.

This will be rock-solid.

Walter Soyka
Keen Live, Inc.
Digital Media Design & Technology

[Walter Soyka]

Hi Roger,

Watchout is certainly a good option, and the new stage tier feature in version 4 will give you a lot of flexibility in allowing some pieces of media to span monitors while others stay confined within one display.

A lower cost option you might consider is synchronized DVD playback, with one player per display. I’d edit the media in FCS as you’ve suggested, and then build the video wall in After Effects, creating one master comp to work in. Then you nest, scale, and re-position that master comp into 24 different comps, each one representing a specific monitor output.

Pixel density will be an issue when using monitors of varying resolution and physical size, because the size of a pixel will vary from display to display. There’s a feature in Watchout that will allow you to correct for this, but if you go the DVD route, you’ll have to compensate that for it while designing in After Effects.

I’m happy to help if you have any other questions.

Walter Soyka
Keen Live, Inc.
Digital Media Design & Technology

[Walter Soyka]

I love the portholes analogy. That is a great way to explain it.

The math for building the pixel map of the displays and the negative space isn’t too hard — what size are the monitors?

Walter Soyka
Keen Live, Inc.
Digital Media Design & Technology

[Walter Soyka]

Hi Brett,

We do a lot of large format & multi-display work, and there are many, many possible solutions for different needs.

Do you envision multiple plasmas mounted on a wall? A large, hi-res seamless rear projection wall? Is the content static, dynamic, or interactive? How often is content updated, if it all? Do you need to integrate lighting as well as audio and video?

Some more detail on what you want to accomplish would help narrow down the solutions you might consider.

Walter Soyka
Keen Live, Inc.
Digital Media Design & Technology

[Walter Soyka]

We do a bunch of multi-display work (though not with MagicNet), so hopefully this advice will be helpful to you.

Your comp does need to be that big, if you want to take advantage of the full resolution of the displays. If you go smaller, the content will be scaled up at the display, making it a blocky, blurry mess.

60Hz is the refresh rate that the screens like to run at. You could make your comp at either 30 fps or 60 fps for smooth playback. I don’t know MagicNet, but 60 fps may be taxing on the system driving the display. If the system can handle it, though, it would look smoother than 30 fps without motion blur.

One big thing to keep in mind here — if you have content that is moving across the screens, their physical installation matters a great deal. You must take into account the size of the bevels on the displays and the space in between the displays so the content doesn’t “jump” as it moves from one screen to another. This means your master comp will actually be larger than just the sum of the 4 screens’ pixels. Rather, your master comp will be the wall the displays are mounted on, with 4 render comps, one per screen, looking at their respective areas of the total.

Walter Soyka
Keen Live, Inc.
Digital Media Design & Technology

[Walter Soyka]

Hi Martin,

I mean a complete second system — another computer and another TripleHead running the same content, with switchers or a router in between the computers and the projectors. Computers crash, and we always run a backup system to switch to in case the primary fails so we don’t jeopardize the event.

Best,

Walter Soyka
Keen Live, Inc.
Digital Media Design & Technology

[Walter Soyka]

That’s only about 15% bigger than HD (it’s much wider, but quite a bit shorter).

Rather than targeting a specific file size, I’d target a specific bit rate — maybe around 20Mbps for MPEG2 or 8-10Mbps for h264. You’ll need to run tests with the production computer, too, to make sure the disk system and the processor can keep up.

Also, when we do computer playback, we always run a live backup system, just in case.

Good luck,

Walter Soyka
Keen Live, Inc.
Digital Media Design & Technology

[Walter Soyka]

We use computers or computer-based DDRs for video playback at live events all the time, but we always also run a backup on a second unit, whether the playback source is computer, DDR, or even Beta tape. Of course, this would mean you’d also need a switcher.

When I author discs for playback loops, I encode multiple iterations of the loop. That is, if it’s a 1 minute loop, I’ll stack 20 or 30 of them back to back on the timeline. This saves some wear and tear on the DVD or Blu-Ray drive mechanism, and reduces the number of times you’ll see the loop glitch as the laser scans back to the beginning of the disc.

Walter Soyka
Keen Live, Inc.
Digital Media Design & Technology

[Walter Soyka]

I’ve just started using ScreenCast for quick reviews & delivery (I found them through their advertisement on the bottom of this forum).

You upload a video, optionally password-protect it, optionally allow downloads, and send your clients a link. None my my clients have had any issues viewing or downloading media, and the servers seem very fast.

Big downside is that there doesn’t seem to be a way to brand their site — whereas Xprove and Media Batch would do this — but I think you can embed the video into your own site through a link they provide.

Walter Soyka
Keen Live, Inc.
Digital Media Design & Technology