Hewlett Packard

Jack Morton Worldwide have worked with Creative Technology for the last few years, pioneering the use of the latest technological advances to produce economical but stunning visual solutions for the major blue chip companies that Jack Morton Worldwide work with.

The Hewlett Packard event in Hall 1 at the International Convention Centre in Berlin April 2007 proved to be just that kind of event.

The design of the event proposed a 17m wide presentation screen with a 2.47:1 aspect ratio. Given the scale of the screen, there were discussions that resulted in the decision to use High Definition video technology.

With the advances in Graphical technology meaning that the cost of producing HD graphics could be done by in house Graphics designers and operators, this further attracted Jack Morton to deploy the use of this technology.

Creative technology under Jack Morton's instruction then designed an equipment specification in order to display the following elements on screen.

Full screen HD Powerpoint, providing an animated or static canvas background, Full screen HD video, shot specifically for the event, 3 Cameras mixed via one of CT's PPU (Portable Production Unit), camera systems into a PIP (Picture in Picture) layer on top of the full screen background, Standard definition powerpoint, VT elements and demo machines also in PIP layers sometimes shown in conjunction with similar PIPs of camera or other graphical elements.

Source machines were also provided by CT. Consisting of; Main and Back up HDCam Playback machines, Main and Back up DigiBeta Playback machines for playback of Standard Definition video, Main and Back up HD Powerpoint Graphic Machines, Main and Back up HD Watchout channels for playback of the animated HD graphic elements, 3 Camera Standard Definition PPU system.

This system enables up to 10 separate sources to be displayed on the same screen at once. The sources can be moved, dissolved on/off screen and a lot more. The spyder system that CT provides gives the ability via various matrices to show and control various elements such as comfort monitors. Each speaker on the event required a different placement of comfort monitor elements on the six comfort monitors in front of stage. With the flexibility of programming of spyder, each presenter's settings could be stored, their preferences could be recalled at the touch of a button.

One of the features of the Plenary required Wolfram Fischer of Hewlett Packard to 'appear' on screen at various points in the proceedings from different parts of the International Convention Centre. This involved pre-cabling over a kilometre of Triax cable to three points in the building, so that a mobile camera crew could hook up to 'mission control' backstage in the Plenary, thereby giving our racks engineer full control of all camera elements to screen.

The programme output was displayed to screen with 2 superimposed Digital Lightning 35HD projectors. Given the aspect ratio of the screen, the resolution of the screen was 1920 by 700 pixels. The imagery was punchy bright and very effective.

Given that the projectors were over 100m away in cable distance from the control position, careful consideration had to be made over the cable link between control and projection. The bandwidth of the signal meant that signal loss and ghosting could occur if a traditional method such as RGBHV cabling over PSF 1/3 cable was used. Given that the projectors take in their signal via DVI connector, in order not to introduce further processing into the signal path the decision was taken to use a fibre optic link between front of house and backstage.

As power for the projectors was most likely to be on a different supply and phase to that of control, the introduction of fibre optic cable meant that any phase difference issues that one would have with traditional cable would not be present.

CT's own built Military spec fibre optic cable systems consist of 8 way fibre cables that encode and de-code signals via specifically built 8 way send and receive boxes. Different kinds of signal path can then be sent via their specific decode and encode to fibre boxes that are commercially available. CT have the ability to send composite (with audio), or RGBHV, or SDI, or DVI signals via the various array of signal boxes they own.

In addition to the main plenary CT supplied support projection equipment for 8 breakout rooms, projection for the gala dinner in Hall 2 adjoining the main plenary, which used the same control systems as the plenary, thereby saving cost for Jack Morton, and ultimately Hewlett Packard.

In addition an artic full of 32" LCD screens, 42" Plasma Screens and associated signal distribution was sent to Berlin. This would be used for specific requirements on the exhibition floor, messaging system, and workshops for the event. CT were able to supply over 50 identical 32" LCD screens, and 40 42" Plasmas for the exhibition, thus ensuring that the look and feel of the exhibition was common across the floor.

Gerry Francke from Creative Technology was responsible for the development and implementation of CT specific elements on the project. At the height of the production, Gerry was in command of 22 video engineers and technicians.

Working with Jack Morton and Hewlett Packard, Gerry’s level of experience meant he was able to assess the expectations and ensure every facet to the event was delivered with seamless perfection. For example, Gerry appointed HOD’s for the exhibition and breakout areas so that he was able to manage the Plenary effectively, whilst knowing that the other areas were in safe hands and being managed with the same level of care and precision as the main room. The event proved to be a resounding success and CT look forward to working with Jack Morton on future projects.