A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. (AC-ET) has supplied two Green Hippo Hippotizer V4 Karst+ Display Port Media Servers to full-service event production agency, T.H.Collective, to provide flexible, high-resolution video playback for a range of client events.
Based in Bristol, T.H.Collective has a reputation for delivering outstanding event management solutions based upon decades of experience. Its end-to-end service includes technical production, production management, equipment hires, video production and scenic design – covering everything from exhibitions and live outdoor events to corporate conferences and awards ceremonies.
With video proving to be today’s most powerful and popular creative marketing tool for clients, T.H.Collective’s in-house video production team prides itself on being able to offer clients up to 4K resolution playback with multi-camera vision-mixing for live events and other types of applications.
T.H.Collective was looking to invest in a robust system for large format video playback on high resolution LED walls and edge-blended projection. These applications required the screen content to be displayed at a higher pixel count than a single video port could carry.
Matt Emmerson, Head of Video at T.H.Collective approached AC-ET to recommend a suitable playback solution to meet the company’s technically demanding requirements.
He commented: “The decision to use Hippotizer media servers came down to the flexibility in operating them. Triggers can be run using programmed timelines, individual DMX channels, midi signals, stream decks, directly with the Zookeeper control software or as a fixture from a lighting console.
He added: “In addition, we often use LED and pixel tape in our backdrops. The PixelMapper component has an intuitive, user friendly interface, enabling pixel maps to be programmed quickly and easily.”
Chris Beardwell, Technical Sales Executive in AC-ET’s dedicated Video sales division recommended the Green Hippo Hippotizer Karst+ Display Port Media Server, with its 2 x display port 1.2 outputs and genlock sync. T.H.Collective purchased two units, giving it the option to run them as either a main and back up, or linked together to handle any larger canvases.
So far T.H.Collective has utilised the Hippotizer Karst+ media servers for large format playback and pixel mapping, for a wide variety of events.
One of the most technically demanding applications was working with Reading based production company JB Events, for Microsoft’s ‘Future Decoded’ event at ExCel, London Docklands, which attracted thousands of business leaders, journalists and technology fans across two days. This saw the Karst Media Servers running as main and backup, with 1 output running a 3600 x 1200 pixel projection and the 2nd output running a 3456 x 1920 pixel LED wall.
Emerson remarked: “All content was ingested at native screen resolutions, running multiple layers with alpha channels. The units performed flawlessly, with no faults or frames dropped, which is really impressive.”
Summarising his experience using the Hippotizer Karst+, Emerson commented: “The Hippotizers have proven to be perfect for our technical requirements. With their huge flexibility, from the outset we had peace of mind that we could deploy the same units on a variety of shows with differing budgets. Our video production team and clients have been very impressed with the media server range’s capabilities.”
On working with AC-ET, the exclusive distributor for the Green Hippo range in the UK, Emerson remarked: “AC-ET and Chris in the Video team have been awesome. Chris provided an onsite demo, kept us up to date on the order delivery status, and has made himself available for any technical support we’ve required, including answering emails promptly during weekends. We couldn’t ask for more!”