CNN Democratic Party Presidential Debate 2016

Customer: Data Display Audio Visual chooses Christie MicroTiles CNN Democratic Party Presidential Debate 2016

Location: Las Vegas, NV

Industry/Market: Rental staging Television broadcast

Partners: Data Display Audio Visual, a division of ON Event Services

Requirements: • Super-fine resolution • Extreme reliability for live, televised event • High brightness • Color balanced across the entire Dynamic stage for CNN’s live television broadcast, built using 320 Christie MicroTiles. Photo credit: Data Display Audio Visual wall

Summary: Christie MicroTiles operate flawlessly Data Display Audio Visual provided the high-resolution display at live, high-profile event solution CNN needed for their live broadcast of the first Democratic “We’re like the circus: we arrive in town, set we wanted to build, to test the graphics and Party Presidential Debate 2016. up, operate, tear down and move on to the see what colors would work best. Naturally, They created a massive wall of next event,” explains Shawn Rockefeller, you’ll see a lot of red, white and blue on the Christie MicroTiles that would act vice president, Data Display Audio Visual, MicroTiles during the debate,” Rockefeller as a dynamic backdrop behind the a division of ON Event Services. “All of says, laughing. “At first, CNN had presidential candidates. our work is temporary or rental staging. considered using another product but it We don’t do permanent installations. And didn’t work well in tests. MicroTiles worked Products: there’s no room for error.” great and we’re all very happy with them.” • Christie MicroTiles (320)

When Data Display, a rental staging “We like Christie MicroTiles because Results: company specializing in AV solutions, was they’re a creative tool: I equate them Christie MicroTiles operated asked to create a dynamic display wall to Lego because you can create almost flawlessly at the debate, which was for CNN’s live television broadcast of the any shape you want.” viewed by a live television audience first Democratic Party Presidential Debate of more than 15 million in the United 2016, they were confident that Christie® Shawn Rockefeller, States alone. MicroTiles® DLP® LED rear-projection cubes Vice president, Data Display Audio Visual were the best option. “We probably use MicroTiles more than Data Display traveled to CNN’s New any other stager in the country; we drive York offices twice to do camera tests with ours for a lot of hours,” Rockefeller explains. Christie MicroTiles. “In addition to being flexible, there’s the contrast and then the resolution. For most “We did a mock-up of a section of the wall of our shows we need extremely high resolution because of the software we’re to a huge global audience, this installation using that direct-view LED tiles just can’t certainly put more pressure on us,” match. Space is always an issue with us Rockefeller explains. “Were we nervous? and Christie MicroTiles are compact, with a Maybe a little; live national television is depth of just 10 inches. They beat out front- certainly more pressure-packed than trade and even rear-projection when it comes to shows.” space requirements. Space is money.” “My biggest fear was losing a light engine Building the Christie MicroTiles wall in the middle of the show,” Swanson shares, “even though we have never had that In October 2015, Data Display headed to happen on any show we’ve ever done.” Las Vegas where they would build a massive 50-foot wide by 8-foot high video wall with “One of the beautiful aspects of MicroTiles’ 320 Christie MicroTiles. The dynamic wall, design is how easy the light engines are created to display high-resolution graphics to replace. It only takes our team around during the debates, was positioned to four minutes: you just remove the screen appear behind the presidential candidates. from the front using a suction cup, pull out the screws, pop in the new light and Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton shake “Building the wall was a lot of work: there you’re all set. Plus, the rest of the wall is hands and share a laugh during the debates was a lot of cabling involved and we still up and running during this change,” needed to create cut-outs where CNN’s explains Rockefeller. “We made sure we logo would appear,” shares Mark Swanson, had spare light engines and that everything technology director, Data Display, “but it worked well before going live. We were fully was a straightforward installation that went prepared; there was no way any section of well.” the wall wasn’t going to work. Failure was not an option.” To ensure optimum brightness, the team replaced the light engines in the Flawless performance 17 MicroTiles that had logged the most operating hours. Next, they adjusted color In the end, none of Data Display’s spare and brightness across the entire wall to light engines would be needed: the ensure colors didn’t appear washed out technology performed flawlessly during the under CNN’s bright studio lighting. debate.

“We did a good color balance the first day, “After the Democratic debate, we took which took around four hours,” explains everything down, headed to our next show The candidates, from left to right: Jim Webb, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Martin Swanson. “The next day, CNN had their in New Orleans,” laughs Swanson, “and O’Malley, Lincoln Chaffey content up and it looked great. Once we built another wall out of MicroTiles.” had done our testing and had everything locked in, the wall was rock solid.” Contact Christie Contact us today to find out how your Under pressure organization can benefit from Christie solutions. Photo credit (this page): CNN “Given that the debates are broadcast live

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For the most current specification information, please visit www.christiedigital.com Copyright 2016 Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc. All rights reserved. All brand names and product names are trademarks, registered trademarks or tradenames of their respective holders. Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc.’s management system is registered to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. Performance specifications are typical. Due to constant research, specifications are subject to change without notice. Printed in Canada on recycled paper. Name of customer | January 2016