USA - Market America touched down in Miami's American Airlines Arena for their World Conference, with Quince Imaging specifying Avolites' Ai media server for the event's video needs.
For this show Eric Gazzillo, Display Designer for Quince Imaging, used two Ai Miami software licences, running version 8 on custom built hardware. As Gazzillo recalls: "I've had my eye on Avolites for some time, and having done this particular event several times in the past, I knew it would be a perfect fit right away.
"This show, produced by Ashley Events, is not your typical corporate event. There are just so many different needs for the show that we've had to use just about every playback technology under the sun. The technical complexity of the screen layout really calls for a media server, but because the constant flexibility of this show we've had trouble in the past just finding the programming time to incorporate them. That's were Ai came in. The GUI is just so fast and intuitive, I was never slowed down by the lighting console or timeline based programming."
This was the first show that Gazzillo had used Ai on, and was astounded at the speed at which he was able to get to grips with the software. "The learning curve is much more manageable than other servers I've used," he says. "Because my schedule was so compressed, I never was able to find the time for formal training. Without training, I had some reservations going into the show, but programming and performance ended up being flawless."
After a little time to familiarise himself with the complexities of the Ai software, Gazzillo notes: "I'm still getting into the system as a whole, but the more I test, the more I love the ease of programming. I've programmed quite a few different servers, but I've never been able to fall right into using the advanced features quite so quickly."
Quince used Ai, alongside 10x Barco HD20 projectors, to project onto a 4K canvas which served as motion backgrounds throughout the 3-day show. In addition to this 130' x 38' projection surface, there were a number of 42" scenic monitors, and flexible LED products embedded into the upstage scenic elements.
Having worked with Ashely Events and this client before, the team at Quince were aware going into the job that the scenery would need to be very video centric. "In the past, we've run all these elements individually just to help keep the media server programming time more manageable," notes Gazzillo.
"This time around we were able to run everything off of a single Ai with ease. Not only did this help with the technical aspects, but it also helped with aesthetics. There are a number of musical performances to help break up the business aspects of the show, and having all graphic content linked to a single device helped create a more unified look."
In completing this particular job, Gazzillo was especially impressed by the preview functionalities of the system. "Having the ability not only to preview the entire show in 3D space, but also have the ability to use the system patch to create separate preview windows was a big help. Not only was it useful, it functioned better than I would have imagined. I've been testing the system with up to 8K content, and the 3D preview renders flawlessly, while still being responsive as I pan/tilt around the model."
Gazzillo's choice of media server was made after careful consideration of capabilities, practicality and accessibility. "I've really appreciated the ability to purchase software only licenses," he says. "Not only does this give us more options when configuring the system, but it also gives us a lot of bang for our buck.
"As media servers become more and more critical to shows, the prices only seem to skyrocket faster and faster," Gazzillo continues. "As a mid-sized engineering firm, I've been really crunching the numbers, and as a price-per output, the Ai Miami license can't be beat!"
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