042 REPORT
LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES
Company: Avolites Media Location: London, UK
Despite only recently celebrating its first birthday, Avolites Media is already having a major impact on the creative and technical possibilities of stadium visuals. The invention of the company’s groundbreaking Ai Media Server has opened up a fresh perspective on how parts of a stadium, and the audience itself, can become part of a visual extravaganza. During last summer’s Olympics and Paralympics in London, up to 900 million people worldwide witnessed the Ai Media Servers immense power live as it provided the graphics engines for the world’s largest ever video screen during the opening and closing ceremonies of London’s Olympic and Paralympic Games. This proved to be a technical feat that became a talking point worldwide. Supplied, programmed and installed by design company Immersive, the Ai Infinity Server system was used by Tait Technologies to deliver incredible graph- ics to 70,500 pixel tablets installed in each seat, turning the stadium into a giant, 3D, 360º, video screen and involving the audience in an interactive visual specta- cle. Frederic Opsomer, CEO of Tait Technologies, who drove the development of the eye-catching pixel tablets said: “We chose Avolites Media’s Ai Infinity Server because of Avolites’ substantial success in the field of entertainment systems and control and the support we knew we would get. Quite simply this is one of the only server systems that can handle pixel mapping on such a huge scale. The Olympics was a one shot event, it had to be perfect, and the strength of Avolites’ reputation is reassuring to all those involved. The Ai software simplified the mammoth task of mapping visuals on such a grand scale.” Immersive also supplied a number of Ai Miami Software Licence Keys to Creative Technology to take care of other video elements around the site. The show ran
flawlessly as Dave Green, lead developer for Avolites Media, explained: “We didn’t experience a single problem and the back-up systems remained just that for every part of the production. We used a single Infinity Server (plus one for back up), controlled from a Sapphire Media Controller for the main audience pixel tablets. We then used another Infinity Server - plus one for back up - also controlled by a Sap- phire Media controller for overall control of the rest of the Ai Systems. We had five Ai Miami Licences for the moving Spice Girls’ taxis’ LED graphics; 28 Ai Miami Licences for general video around the venue including stadium LED screens, video mapping stage elements, in total 37 Ai Servers were used.” Dave was closely assisted by Martin Harvey, Head of Technical at Immersive and operator for both Paralympics ceremonies. Plus Avolites’ Technical Director, JB Toby and his team worked tirelessly to bring the delivery dates of the prototype Sapphire Media and Infinity Servers forward so they would be ready for the big event. “The Sapphire Media offered the creative team for the Games’ opening and closing ceremonies’ the ability to trigger and control clips live,” said Avolites Me- dia’s MD Steve Warren. “As with many large scale productions more of the show was run live than the industry might have expected. Most importantly, we were able to easily set up the Sapphire Media console to control the X, Y and Rotation of the projector outputs live, enabling real-time adjustment onto mapped surfaces. This ability brought a fantastic advantage as some elements were not able to be rehearsed, due the ongoing sporting events in the final performance space.”
www.avolitesmedia.com
Company: Barco Location: London, UK
As a truly global media event, the Olympic Games have historically been used to introduce and showcase new technologies. The 225-minute opening show of the London 2012 Olympics Games was a great opportunity for Barco LiveDots and Tait Technologies to catch the eye with their giant, interactive LED display. Barco and Tait have been involved in the Olympics for many years now, so when the Inter- national Olympic Committee starting planning the 2012 edition, they got in touch again. “Producer Danny Boyle dreamt of putting on a truly interactive opening show. Several meetings, brainstorming sessions and workshops followed to discuss the vision, possible concepts and the technical feasibility,” recalled Frederic Op- somer, CEO of Tait. Thinking back to the rave reviews of the immense LED display
www.mondodr.com
they had developed for U2’s 360 tour, Barco and Tait decided to create a giant LED wall for the London 2012 Olympic Games, using Barco’s modular FLX LEDs. Joost De Frene, Product Manager at Barco LiveDots said: “FLX is a unique free- form LED concept consisting of individually controllable, compact 24mm LED pixel modules. It allows a designer to convert every surface into a high-quality display, of whatever shape or form.” The prototype Barco and Tait elaborated clearly stood out during a shootout ses- sion and shortly after that, the team set up an impressive LED screen, made up of 85,000 FLX-24 LED pixels on 20km of custom railing behind the stadium seats, for the Arab Games in Doha. It was a perfect showcase. Not long after came the green light to provide a similar solution for the London 2012 Olympics Games. “Challenges abounded,’’ Joost admitted, “first there was the short time frame: no more than a few months left for final design, production, testing and certification. Plus, we had to cope with fiercely stringent EMC certification tests as the Commit- tee had had problems with LEDs in the past and wouldn’t take any risks.” In spite of the challenges, they pulled it off. Barco delivered the electronics, while Tait took care of the design, manufacturing and assembly of the tablets. XL Video lent a helping hand too, providing sourcing support. In barely 14 weeks, Barco’s FLX modules were integrated into hand-held tablets, featuring nine LED pixels per tablet, and then tested and installed in the Olympic Stadium. The total LED display included 637,191 pixels, turning the stadium into a giant video display. “To meet the strict safety requirements, we encapsulated the tablets in metal. Exhaustive testing at the independent EMC laboratory proved their full compliance,” Frederic recalled. “Once delivered in London, all 70,799 tablets were then installed behind and be- tween the stadium seats.” In total, 63 controllers were connected via 63 fibre lines, 500 hubs and 63 power suppliers, and the cabling infrastructure was 370km. “The LED platform allows great creativity without requiring any development on the backbone. On top of that, it is a very robust system. The tablets were out in the London rain for four months, without any problems,” said Joost. Frederic praised the great teamwork: “Barco is a company you can always rely on. For this project, just like in the past, we combined our complementary experience and expertise to create a mind-blowing solution.”
www.barco.com
Photo by John Monroe
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