58 REP ORT: VIDEO & VISUALS
RIT Z CA RLTON H OT E L COMPANY: ATLONA LOCATION: CALIFORNIA, USA
For Concord, California-based Digital AVS, a custom audio, video, lighting and décor specialist, that growth has largely been in the hospitality sector, particularly with hotels that are seeking new revenue streams beyond standard lodging and dining. Digital AVS achieves this by starting with a blank canvas for each event, and then building an affordable system that leverages the industry’s most effective production tools from a price-to-performance ratio. For hotels, this most often means specifying equipment for spoken word events - meetings, conferences and emceed productions such as fundraisers. “We recently provided audiovisual for a fashion show at a Ritz-Carlton, which proved an excellent example of how Atlona’s extenders make everyone’s lives easier,” said Chuck Wojack, Sales and Operations Manager for Digital AVS. “We used
them coming out of a long cable run into a Gefen multi-out HDMI splitter, and used that to feed two 6,000K projectors. For a recent training, we have done the same sending to Sony confidence monitor to LCD displays at the front of stage to provide visual aids for presenters - all while maintain that single cable run to the front. In both cases, Atlona’s extenders keep things neat and orderly in the room.” In more complex scenarios, Chuck used the ATUHD-EX-70-2PS with the Gefen splitter and a crosspoint matrix switcher to feed the main signal into as many as four outputs - two Eiki or Sanyo projectors and two presentation monitors, for example. That 4x4 capability ensures that Digital AVS can support higher density I/O needs for virtually any hospitality or corporate event setting. Moving forward, Chuck expects to integrate Atlona AT-UHD-CAT-4ED distribution ampli-
fiers as they transition into a broader HDBaseT environment. He also anticipates that more of his customers to being requesting 4K support, and his Atlona extenders and other AV gear are already 4K-compatible for when that time arrives. In the short term, he is more focused on helping his growing hospitality customer base adapt to AV-related business opportunities. “As an example, I am starting to offer live streaming services to our clients,” he said. “I bring my Atlona extenders with me, which are very compact to begin with, and can quickly set up a system to take a secondary monitor out of a client’s laptop. Knowing that I can take that signal on a long run using Atlona, and still have just one carry-on bag at the airport to transport what I need to support them, is a win for everyone involved. We see a lot of opportunity to leverage these products moving forward.” www.atlona.com
T H E HA LE C E N T R E T H E ATR E COMPANY: DISGUISE LOCATION: UTAH, USA
Late last year, The Hale Centre Theatre moved into its new home in Sandy, Utah, with the ambition to combine traditional theatre and the latest in stage technology. The centre’s two theatres, Centre Stage and Jewel Box, are both using the disguise gx series, supplied by Barbizon Light of the Rockies in Denver. The 130,000 sq ft Mountain America Performing Arts Centre, built by Beecher Walker Architects and Layton Construction, features the 900-seat, in-the-round
Centre Stage Theatre with a custom-built, automated stage and a perimeter of LED video screens. The Jewel Box Theatre seats the 467 with a proscenium thrust stage for smaller, more intimate productions, both outfitted with TAIT’s entertainment automation platform, TAIT Navigator. The Hale Centre evaluated several brands of media servers before choosing a disguise gx 2 for the Centre Stage and a gx 1 for the Jewel Box. “We had no prior experience with disguise and worked with Barbizon to www.mondodr.com
hold demos and connect with users at other theatres,” said Video and Projection Designer, Joshua Roberts. “Barbizon was fantastic about providing equipment and facilitating our learning about the system before our purchases.” Joshua points to a number of advantages to using the disguise solution, “disguise has a large user base worldwide so designers are comfortable using it,” he commented. “The gx range is great for us because it offers important Notch integration for any type of magical theatrical effects. If you have that in your toolkit it’s priceless.” disguise’s ability to “talk to our TAIT Navigator system and to incorporate BlackTrax real-time tracking are also important for future productions.” “We can build colour layers to overlay and blend, then tweak them on the fly as we work on the content in the space without affecting playback. With other systems you apply one effect and it eats up the processing power and you can’t play back the video properly,” Joshua added.. The gx 1 in the Jewel Box arrived more recently and will be used on productions starting next season. The space is also rented for corporate events and conferences, and the media server is currently being used for those applications. “The gx 1 gives us a lot of flexibility for our rentals, each of which has different needs,” Joshua noted. “We can refocus for screens we set up without moving the projectors and accept many different sources for presentations. We’re good to go very quickly for clients.” www.disguise.one