Integrating Media Servers and Video by Bullen Lagerbielke, Lighting Designer, Stockholm Sweden

Home , 1981 in music, 1993 in music

ISSUE 33 /Nov 2010

Integrating media servers and video by Bullen Lagerbielke, lighting designer, Stockholm Sweden

For those of you who visited the CAST booth during ProLight use video (and therefore video mapping) for a lot of projects and + Sound in Frankfurt in March or at PLASA in September this that R24 / R25 delivered seriously advanced technology. More- year, you may have had the pleasure to meet Pontus “Bullen” over, he was astounded at the number of Users who had not yet Lagerbielke, a long-time wysiwyg User who was helping us with tried these new features and was kind enough to share some demonstrations during these shows. thoughts and even his special tricks.

46-year-old Bullen resides in Stockholm, Sweden and has been I use wysiwyg for my own designs as well to draw for others. I working with professional lighting since 1981 as Lighting Designer do all my planning in wysiwyg using the spread/worksheets. I and operator with various world renown bands including Roxette will draw everything to scale in all dimensions so I can check for and Eros Ramazzotti, and a wide variety of well-known Swedish any problems or challenges. This is really important – and a key bands and festivals. He also has a long and significant history strength of wysiwyg - what you see is what you get. as Assistant Lighting Designer, System Technician for Consoles and Media Servers for the popular Eurovision Song Contest from I think the biggest strength in wysiwyg is its vast library of truss 2001-2005. and fixtures. This is especially useful when you design a project for a particular place that already has certain fixtures and truss in place. As you can imagine, it is important for me as I design He has been a wysiwyg User since 1998. In fact, he opened his something, to pre-viz using the existing fixtures and permanent own previsualization studio that same year to become a wysiwyg truss, and then to be able to experiment with that to generate a service provider. He provided the wysiwyg previsualization draw- good design. ings for Eurovision 2002, 2003 and 2004. Another big strength of wysiwyg is that you have everything in one program – spreadsheets and such right up to renderings. I can Given Bullen’s advanced familiarity with media servers and video design, get quotes, check plots and Shaded Views (which I use a capabilities, it was no surprise he was able to show many visitors lot more now instead of renderings), make changes (bi-directional to the CAST Booth some new tricks, particularly as regards video so I can change the plot or the spreadsheet either place), and mapping, that you can do with R25. People were astounded. generate renderings while still in the product. This means I am the most efficient because I don’t have to switch between soft- Bullen was equally astounded!. He points out that most LDs can wares and re-enter data all the time.

Click here to see the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owc17xlP4Xk

Integrating media servers and video - continued

In R25 the video options were recently updated and improved, You can reuse your videos on as many surfaces, LED walls or and thepossibilities for presentation and previz increased a lot. I projectors as you like. love the new LED wall tool! This means that you can both make excellent presentations as well as previz your show. Since wysi- To create a Video Wall is just as easy: wyg can use a capture card and CITP as source, you can hook-up any media source and previz both lights and video. And if that’s 1. Go to CAD mode not enough, you can add projectors or attach video as texture to almost any surface. 2. Go to the Draw menu and select the “LED Wizard”

Because this new feature was so interesting to people I met on 3. The LED Wizard will walk you through the creation of an LED the Booth, here’s how to do this: wall with options such as pixel size and pitch. Then place your LED wall where you like. I assume you have a drawing done and know wysiwyg fairly well. CAST continues to add innovation to wysiwyg that facilitates inno- To attach a video as a texture. vation or builds on the advancements in the industry with respect to the convergence of lighting and video. In addition, CAST ensures 1. Go to CAD mode that we Users get access to the best new 3rd party technologies by adding RWD agreements with leading manufacturers of media 2. Select your object, and right-click to access its Properties, servers such as Coolux Pandoras Box (see article in this issue). And to make sure that wysiwyg meets or exceeds what most Users 3. Go to Appearance and select which Element you want the need, CAST is constantly updating its ever-expanding Library. Look video attached to. for more RWDs and Library Addition in the coming year.

4. Select “Use Video Source”. (If you haven’t set up any video Bullen adds, “By the way, I’ve seen what’s coming in R26 and sources yet, this option will not be available, so click the New continue to stay excited about each Release. CAST is really stay- button next to this option to create one; check the wysiwyg ing on top of their game.” manual for information on how to use the Video Manager that appears.) Selected biography:

5. Select the video you just set up from the dropdown. •1987-2001 Roxette tours. Lighting Design and Set design •1993 Eros Ramazzotti. Programmer 6. Click OK. •1993 Stockholm Water Festival, Main stage. Lighting Design •1994 Rocktåget. Lighting Design 7. Now go to Design Mode and open the Video Designer Tool. •2001-2005 Eurovision Song Contest. Assistant Lighting Designer, System technician Consoles and Media Servers. 8. Select your video and press the ‘Play’ button. •2008 Swedish Grammy Awards Lighting Design •1998-2009 Rockbjörnen. Lighting Design Voila, you have the video in your drawing. •1997-98 Meja Lighting Design