www.lightingandsoundamerica.com October 2009 Lighting & Sound America

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Breaking News: The PLASA-ESTA merger Concerts: October 2009 Volume 6 Issue 10 Styx/REO Speedwagon Special Events: U2 “The tour lays down a The Eiffel Tower turns 120 gauntlet for the industry”

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TECHNICAL FOCUS: AUDIO/VIDEO

The Sony booth. Inside

Creative Technology provides audio and video on and off the trade show floor

When the last attendee of Electronic 2-4, has been the one-stop wow-shop The heart of any E3 Expo is on the Entertainment Expo 2009 (E3) left the for gamers, programmers, manufactur- conference center floor, where fans Los Angeles Convention Center, ers, and journalists since 1995. It is pile into booths showcasing the next Creative Technology Group (CT) where some of the most noteworthy generation of gaming. E3 2009 boast- staffers took a deep breath. Video gaming industry innovations have ed 216 exhibitors, all trying to capture and audio pros from the company’s been announced, from Sony’s the attention of more than 41,000 offices worldwide had spent the pre- PlayStation 3 to ’s . attendees from 78 countries. vious 10 days creating, programming, Indeed, E3 could be considered the CT has a long history at the E3 and building some of the dynamic launching pad for careers of thou- Expo, yet this year’s event featured press events and booths for Sony, sands of designers, programmers, and one of the company’s largest pres- Nintendo, , MTV, Capcom, engineers from around the world. (See ences, with teams from CT Los and . last month’s issue for a report on the Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and E3, which, this year, ran from June Xbox briefing at E3.) London on hand. “We provided the

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bulk of the technology used in many of the big, impressive booths,” says John Van Diver, CT Los Angeles business development manager. “Because we own the gear and keep it in top oper- ating condition, we are able to help our clients deliver one-of-a-kind, flaw- less presentations. Our clients don’t want to be experiments. They want to know what’s going to happen and that we can get it done.” This statement was most obvious at the press events serviced by the company. “Sony press events tend to be a little more involved, because peo- ple expect it, and because the compa- ny is such a huge brand,” says CT’s San Francisco project manager, Gerry Platt. “They have to have the biggest, The Capcom booth. baddest trade show booth, and the ultimate press event that’s over and above what anybody else had the cre- ative resources to do.”

Sony at the Shrine This year’s Sony press event was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles; it featured a stage backdrop that included a 34' x 70' center screen bracketed by 34' tall outer towers; the latter were curved so that the image felt as if it was flowing over the audience; it also bowed out at the bottom. “Our biggest chal- lenge, given the complex surface, was creating a seamless image,” says Platt. To accomplish this on the The Nintendo booth. center screen, the CT team utilized a blend of four Barco FLM HD20 pro- jectors placed side by side. Barco Encore 3/E HD-SDI processors were used to smooth the blended area. The outer towers were covered using two FLM HD18s per side. Overcoming the side-by-side place- ment of the projectors took a little technical know-how, but what also helped the crew was the choice of Coolux Pandoras Box server technolo- gy, because the center image was stitched together from four separate servers going to eight projectors. “The programmers had to apply it as one big canvas, and were able to use the morphing software to create areas All photos: Courtesy of Creative Technology Group All photos: Courtesy of Creative Technology where the horizontal and vertical The Nintendo press event.

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TECHNICAL FOCUS: AUDIO/VIDEO

subs were added for low end; a pair of Galileos, Meyer’s loudspeaker man- agement system, controlled the speak- ers via Wi-Fi. To ensure he had proper coverage, Nealie added six Meyer M1D loudspeakers for front fill. “I took some of the signal from the left and right channels and placed it in the center, because of the width of the space and because part of the PA was covered by scenery,” Nealie says. “I didn’t modify the hang of the system, except for moving the center cluster 25' downstage, because I didn’t want the speakers to be upstage of the pre- senters with microphones.”

The Playstation booth. On the floor When it came to working on the con- vention floor, CT staffers put together some of the most talked-about booths. The Nintendo booth was interesting because of its simplicity and focus on ambiance over oomph. “Nintendo has done many things in the past,” reports CT San Francisco project manager Jolyon Beliz, “but, this year, it was all about the atmos- phere. There wasn’t a big stage. It wasn’t in your face. We placed a lot of LEDs over a large portion of the booth, spaced them out, and worked with a lot of fabric and signage. We set a mood for people to come in, enjoy, and play the games, rather than com- The Square Enix booth. ing in and seeing a show.” The booth boasted 160 panels of planes could be bent,” says Platt. In window in the sweet spot.” Martin LC Series 40mm LED, hung addition to the warping on the soft- CT also had to ensure that the vertically. The Martin panels were ware end, there was a bit of smooth- audio system delivered, as well. That selected for two reasons. “They are a ing at the projection end. responsibility fell to director of audio low-resolution LED, so it’s a cost- There was also a 16' x 24' screen services William Nealie, who had to effective product, but they look quite that flew in and out on a traveler for manage 24 inputs from the multiple nice,” Beliz says. “Also, this was the demo elements and playback. “We did video sources and backups, 18 solution that enabled us to rig vertical- a lot of PIPing, where we PIPed play- PlayStation 3 devices, and 12 wireless ly; because the frame structure was back onto the large canvas of the set, microphones. Nealie utilized the strong enough to attach I-bolts to that to create this huge projection surface Digidesign VENUE console to manage we could clip right onto.” for eye candy and wallpaper, and also the 60 inputs, and had a pair of stage The work of assembling and testing for background elements and show racks to handle up to 96 inputs. the panels started before the window- elements,” says Platt, who singles out Nealie also made use of the Meyer of-install opportunity opened. That CT’s projectionist team. “They did a Sound system that is installed at the proved to be crucial, since the team great job creating a really tight projec- Shrine, which includes two arrays of only had two-and-a-half days to put tion image across the whole canvas, 16 MICA cabinets, a pair of center the whole booth together. “We had to so, in the design process, our client at arrays of 10 M1Ds each, eight M1Ds get it set up before anyone else could [the design firm] Stun Gun felt pretty at the stage edge for front fill, and 18 start working the booth,” Beliz says, confident about landing a projection more under the balcony. Eight 700-HP “so we had to get the panels up quick-

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ly. We had six walls to do the first day, twenty-two 46" 1080p LCD monitors mute, respectively, at certain points which we managed to get done in were all that was provided. It was the within the graphics loop. “We took the about eight hours.” audio, he comments that caused more SMPTE time code out from the com- In addition to the LED, the booth of a challenge, since the booth was a puter and used it to control the lighting featured a one-hundred-and-three- rectangle with the LED screen right in console and the audio mixer. They did- inch 1920 x 1080 HD plasma screen. the middle, with ten conference rooms n’t want a tech to do it,” he adds. The media was delivered via a Concise tucked behind it. The client called for “They wanted it all automated.” Watchout computer running 1024 x big sound in front of the screen—and Perhaps one of the most talked- 768 output. “We were able to work minimized behind it, as much as pos- about booths on the floor was the closely with Video Arts, the video edi- sible. To answer the challenge, Van MTV Theatre, where Harmonix tors, and with producer Ralph Miller, to Diver used Meyer’s Galileo to manage debuted : Rock Band. “It create videos that were pixel-mapped the signals between the speakers was so exciting to be a part of this within the 1024 x 768 working space and subwoofers. announcement,” says Kristi Ventura, to fit all of our screens,” Beliz says. “One of the things we wanted to national director of sales. “There was a “That was once again another advan- avoid this year was the sound of low very large LED wall outside showing a tage of the Martin panels, that we end in the conference rooms,” Van reel of The Beatles as a teaser, but were able to physically address them Diver explains. “So, we set the sub- nobody knew what was going on. As before we ever put them in the walls, woofers in a cardioid pattern and then they were waiting in line, the excite- and that saved us time.” used the Galileo to put the speakers ment built and built.” Two channels from Watchout pro- out of phase and delayed the signal. Once the visitors got into the booth, vided SMPTE to the lighting company By doing that, we found that the low- they walked into a recreated Abbey to synchronize the lights in the booth; frequency sound is canceled out on Road to see the demo of the new another channel took the signal the back side of the subs, so all the game shown on six Panasonic 65" through a Folsom Image Pro HD signal sound from the subwoofers was plasmas. The Harmonix staff then gave processor to the plasma screen via focused into the audience space.” its pitch and ushered some of the visi- Gefen fiber. Van Diver worked with the video tors to a private area where they could Kraig Aaronson, the project manag- and audio systems to ensure that both play Rock Band. “It was a nice interac- er responsible for the Capcom booth, worked with the lighting rig to dim and tive experience,” Ventura says. had to deal with both the tight time frame and booth size. “There was a lit- tle box, and all the equipment had to go in there,” he says. “Then, if any- thing went wrong, it would have been like if something went wrong in the Space Shuttle.” The unique feature of the Capcom booth was the doorway that visitors walked through. “It was [Barco i6 LED] wall, so it looked great,” he said, “but when we were laying out the software and had to segment the wall, we had to do a little juggling with the Barco software.” In fact, Aaronson’s team asked for a second piece of media that was better designed for the door- way feature. The media was run off a Grass Valley Turbo-R SD/HD recorder. On the audio side, four JBL VP7212 powered speakers were steeply angled to avoid transmitting sound into the aisles or neighboring booths. The Square Enix booth, says John Van Diver, was straightforward in terms of the video technology—a large LED wall made of 200 Barco NX-4 tiles and Above and top: Scenes from the Sony press event at the Shrine Auditorium.

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TECHNICAL FOCUS: AUDIO/VIDEO

Given that level of anticipation, “we Making a meeting space buzz, and locals coming through. They had to make sure the sound was Paul Sanders, of the CT Group in would talk about upcoming titles and incredible,” Ventura says. “It had to London, joined the U.S.-based staff for trends, pitching to their locality.” give its all, because it was The E3. “We’ve always had an involvement The booth was broken into meeting Beatles. It sounded crisp and thump- in one shape or form, but this is the rooms and featured a simplified A/V ing.” To meet that challenge, Meyer first year we’ve comprehensively been set-up. “There was a lot of stimulation M1D speakers were placed at strate- there,” he says. Sanders oversaw the in the room, but it wasn’t just from gic locations. Sony Europe meeting space, which games,” Sanders says. “The client Sixty-six Barco i6 black chip tiles was interesting and challenging at the wasn’t trying to hit the visitors hard delivered the visual impact. “The same time, because there was a differ- with the message. This was all about blacks are so rich, and the color satu- ent country hosting the booth each creating a nice space for them to be ration is nothing like any other prod- day. “One day it was Italy, the next in. This was very relaxed and informal. uct,” Ventura says. “It popped almost France or Germany,” he says. “On It was a very European feel.” like it was 3-D.” their day, they would get all the press, As far as the A/V system, John Yesco, the project manager, worked directly with the client’s London office to organize the project, while Sanders handled account manage- ment. Yesco worked with a number of pieces that Sony supplied, as well as with a projection screen that dis- played information about upcoming game titles. The main projector was a Panasonic PTD DLP 10K projector with a Sanyo XF45 LCD 10K projec- tor on hand as a back-up. A Barco Encore 3M/E HD/SDI was used for processing, and Barco’s Encore small controller was used for management. Sanders is quick to point out that Lightweight aluminum technology was not the focus of this frame construction with space, however. “We had to bear in durable high impact mind that content was king in this situ- polymer panels. ation,” he says. “We can hang our hat on the fact that we were able to turn around a lot of content on very short Your company logo can notice and choreograph the space dif- be permanently milled ferently each day, because each territo- into the polymer panels ry has its own idiosyncrasies as far as for easy identification how it wants to deliver its message.” and branding. Enabling clients to deliver a mes- sage, no matter the medium or ambiance, was the key to success at Innovative flush- this year’s E3 Expo, said all concerned. mounting, self-latching “It’s not about how many boxes or front and rear panels. screens are in a booth,” Van Diver comments. “It’s about what it takes to deliver what’s needed for the client. Often, more is not better. That’s where our expertise as a company comes in, Lex Products Corp Lex West www.lexproducts.com because we have the technical experi- 401 Shippan Avenue 11847 Sheldon Street [email protected] Stamford, CT 06902 Sun Valley, CA 91352 800.643.4460 ence and knowledge to provide the 203.363.3738 818.768.4474 right solution every single time.” 203.363.3742 Fax 818.768.4040 Fax CIRCLE READER SERVICE 62

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