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Presenting Isaac Julien’s ten thousand waves installation in flawless high-definition with pioneer hd video ‘Internationally renowned artist and film-maker Isaac Julien’s work TEN THOUSAND WAVES, was displayed at the ShanghArt Gallery as part of the Shanghai Expo. The work weaves together stories linking China’s ancient past and present, exploring what motivates people to make often perilous movements to seek new opportunities in a global society. To show Isaac’s work in its full beauty, across the nine-screen installation, we installed Pioneer’s latest high-definition Blu-ray player. The player creates images with the depth, colour and clarity that Isaac intended to produce an immersive and captivating installation. Video is an increasingly popular art form and, as we support artists who, like Isaac, really want to use the best technology, we expect to be working with Pioneer’s professional HD video players more and more – the systems are approaching “industry standard”.’ Nick Joyce, Proprietor, ArtAV
Pioneer Pro Video
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Situation:
Bringing social commentary to life with maximum impact
Solution:
A team effort maximising Pioneer’s reliability and superior performance
Results:
A stunning installation with flawless and reliable video performance
Isaac Julien was commissioned
ArtAV works with leading artists
The show received excellent
to exhibit his latest work
to build video installations.
reviews and the video system
TEN THOUSAND WAVES – a
The company partners closely
excelled: there was no downtime
multichannel video installation
with Digiverse, a leading
at all, while the production team
– at the ShanghArt Gallery in
distributor of video equipment,
were delighted with the video
parallel with the Shanghai Expo
who recommended ArtAV to
quality, which they described
in May 2010. The work explores
install Pioneer’s BDP-V6000,
as virtually indistinguishable
how globalisation has created
professional Blu-ray player. The
from uncompressed video. The
the motivation for people to
system comprised nine synced
show has also been praised as
undertake often perilous journeys
(for audio and video) players to
‘technically flawless’ by Isaac
across continents. To deliver
display the video controlled by
Julien. Reviews for the work
Isaac’s poetic and artistic vision, a
bespoke software written by
have been very positive too. The
bespoke system was required to
ArtAV. Although ArtAV is currently
respected website www.artinfo.
achieve two key objectives. First
working on an Ethernet set up,
com describes the installation as
that the images were delivered
this installation was run through
‘hauntingly memorable’.
with the highest picture quality
RS232, using RJ45 network
for maximum impact. And
connections – the compact
second that the film commentary
connections helped reduce the
synchronised flawlessly with the
physical space required by each
nine-screen installation.
player’s installation. The content was converted to HD format and 9.2 channel surround sound from the original 35mm film.
Isaac Julien Isaac Julien is a celebrated international artist. He was born in London in 1960 where he currently lives and works. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001 for his films The Long Road to Mazatlán (1999), made in collaboration with Javier de Frutos, and Vagabondia (2000), choreographed by Javier de Frutos. Earlier works include Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask (1996), Young Soul Rebels (1991) which was awarded the Semaine de la Critique prize at the Cannes Film Festival the same year, and the acclaimed poetic documentary Looking for Langston (1989). Recently, Isaac has had solo shows at the Pompidou Centre in Paris (2005), MoCA Miami (2005) and the Kerstner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2006). Julien is represented in the Tate Modern, Pompidou Centre, Guggenheim and Hirshhorn collections.
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Mesmerising art requires mesmerising video Isaac Julien’s work, TEN THOUSAND WAVES, was displayed at the ShanghArt Gallery in parallel with the Shanghai Festival. The work challenges the viewer to ponder on what motivates people to undertake perilous journeys in a globalised society. The haunting video uses parallel montage and the image of water – the sandy waters of Lancashire, the Yangtze River and the Shanghai Bund – as a symbol of danger, trade, modernity, mystery and economic power. A ghostly protagonist leads the viewer through a story that entwines legend with modern China. On Isaac’s recommendation, the gallery approached ArtAV to build the technical platform for Isaac’s video work to be presented in all its beauty. Says Nick Joyce: ‘Rightly artists like Isaac demand the best, striving to create captivating video installations that faithfully reproduce their work as they intend it to be seen.’ He continues: ‘We worked in close collaboration with Isaac who was very involved in the selection of the technology. One option we looked at was to use a solid-state media server, but this was extremely expensive. With this in mind, we looked at what else was available to deliver the quality of a media server more affordably.’ ArtAV explained the challenge to Digiverse, a reseller and distributor of pro AV equipment that it has collaborated with for over ten years.
Digiverse recommends Pioneer
A new player with new levels of performance
Digiverse represents a variety of brands and is an official supplier of Pioneer products. The company works across a range of sectors, advising on video installations in art galleries, retail spaces and museums. James Mortimer, Director of Digiverse, comments: ‘We’re a specialist reseller of AV equipment and, along with our in-depth knowledge of video systems, we are pretty unique in that we keep in stock a very broad range of equipment. So at the drop of a hat, we can assist our customers in immediately getting started on video installations. This worked in our favour as the ArtAV team was operating to tight deadlines and we had also just taken delivery of a product we believed to be ideal for this project – Pioneer’s new professional Blu-ray player, the BDP-V6000.’
The BDP-V6000 incorporates a range of technologies to optimise Blu-ray’s HighDefinition (HD) 1080p video including innovations to reduce block, mosquito and digital noise for stunning images. The image quality is further improved through 48-bit deep colour support to produce video with greater intensity and clarity. The player also incorporates a wide range of connectivity options including RS-232C and Ethernet for flexible installation and control. ‘Alongside the strong technical specification of the player, there’s also the issue of build quality,’ says Nick Joyce. ‘Although it’s rare for us to install equipment that we have not tested, the product’s features, the experience we’ve had with Pioneer before, and the recommendation from Digiverse convinced us to select the BDP-V6000 to drive this installation.’
Installation set-up ArtAV ordered ten units for the ninescreen installation. ‘We always build in redundancy,’ said Joyce. ‘We built an extra unit into the system fully installed and ready to go should there be an issue, which minimises downtime to less than a minute by simply requiring the necessary connections to be made.’ ArtAV’s primary challenge was to achieve excellent synchronisation across the nine-screen set-up for both video and audio streams. ‘We therefore built a bespoke 8-core multi-processor synchronisation controller, which allowed us to separate the critical timing and synchronising from user input or GUI handling,’ says Nick Joyce. The software ArtAV developed allows the system’s performance to be reviewed remotely, and to carry out diagnostics should there be an issue. ArtAV built and configured the complete rack in the UK and shipped it directly to
Shanghai for installation. One of ArtAV’s technicians travelled to China and was on-site for the show’s duration. Despite every effort with the labelling indicating how the boxes should be handled, on arrival one of the racked boxes was dropped. ‘It was a nervous moment for our guy on-site, but thankfully it still performed just as it should. This is real testament to how well-built this product is,’ observes Joyce.
Results: A captivating performance The technical quality of the video for TEN THOUSAND WAVES presents the work’s haunting landscapes in stunning quality. And so helps to achieve Isaac Julien’s vision to challenge the viewer to ask why people undertake hazardous journeys in search of new opportunities elsewhere. ‘The video was flawless – virtually indistinguishable from uncompressed video,’ says Nick Joyce. ‘And we had fantastic feedback from the public and art professionals alike.’
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Reliability was also exceptional too – although ten units were on-site, the spare BDP-V6000 did not have to be used. ‘There were no hiccups throughout. We had ten units in the rack and nine in use, but we didn’t need the back-up unit – it all worked perfectly,’ says Joyce.
success of the work and was handled superbly. We are very grateful to both ArtAV and Pioneer.’
The last word is left to Isaac Julien. He comments: ‘My experience of working with ArtAV during the Shanghai Expo was amazing. The innovative installation utilising the Pioneer V6000 Blu-ray players was technically flawless; the picture and quality of the exhibition was a constant talking point. Moreover the reliability of the synchronisation of the Blu-ray video was crucial to the
ArtAV
Following the success at Shanghai and more recently Helsinki, the work will now be shown all over the world using the same equipment.
ArtAV is a specialist provider of technology services to galleries, museums, curators and artists with an emphasis on video. They provide a full service from system design to installation to technical assistance throughout a show or exhibition. They are specialists in bespoke system development and one of few operating
full-time in the art arena. They have built relationships with a number of leading contemporary artists such as Isaac Julien and Jane and Louise Wilson and galleries including the Gagosian and the Hayward Gallery as well as becoming sought after internationally for installations such as the Shanghai Expo and Sydney Biennale. www.artav.co.uk
Digiverse Digiverse is a consultancy, valueadded reseller and distributor of truly interactive and durable Digital and DVD-based solutions to retail outlets, exhibitions, museums and galleries alike all over the UK and across Europe, with over ten years’ experience in this field. www.digiverse.co.uk
Pioneer BDP-V6000
Key features:
Pioneer’s BDP-V6000 Professional Blu-ray player enables the easy presentation and management of eye-catching HD content. Pioneer’s build quality provides the assurance of resilient performance of the rackmountable BDP-V6000 for the display of exceptional video across a wide range of venues: from museums to art galleries, reception areas to offices, shops to malls, lecture theatres to classrooms and broadcast studios to location vehicles.
Power On Start Play List Play Tray Lock Front Panel Key Lock Rack-Mount Kit Included No Manufacturer Power On Logo Serial RS-232C Support Enhanced Search Options Professional Graphic User Interface (GUI) BD-Live (1GB Internal Memory) USB for BD-Live contents storage with HDD Support 48-bit Deep Colour Jitter Reduction Circuit PQLS Multi-Surround Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio Essential (bitstream out & decoding) X.v.Colour Compatible
Pioneer Europe N.V
For More Information Contact:-
Pro Sound & Vision Business, Slough, SL2 4QP, UK
Paul Beardsall
TEL +44 (0) 1753 789789
European Product Manager, Pioneer Europe
FAX +44 (0) 1753 789880 www.pioneer.eu
+44 (0) 1753 789 693 Designed and produced by Planet Interactive Arts Limited, www.planet-ia.com
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