A few months ago I bought one of those nice octo core Intel Mac Towers.  My intention was to build my own media server.  I maxed the RAM (16GB), added 3 dual head video cards, and an onboard RAID controller.  I set up a RAID5 with 4×500GB drives for a total of 1.5TB of superfast storage.  For the software I’m using Garage Cube’s Modul8.  It was written for speed and more

Well, I’ve just returned from 3 weeks of cruising aboard the inaugural voyage of Holland America’s ms Eurodam. I’ve designed a bunch of shows for Holland America over the last 4 years. Working in the modern cruise era is always dissonant, the theatres are ultra modern, equipped beyond the wildest imaginings of many. Multiple stage lifts, turntables, incredible tracked & automated fly systems that keep flying pieces from moving against the ships motions… Hundreds of Vari*Lites…

And, happily enough for me, a big flying full stage backdrop of MiTrix, and a rack full of Hippotizers to feed it delicious content.

Yet, I’ll not pretend that this entertainment is aimed at the serious dramaturgs among us (this is that dissonance part)… Let’s face it, this is frothy, fun, uh… Air filled stuff. But it is really pretty, and secretly, I really enjoy it… It’s entertainment… You can take the boy out of Vegas, but…

So our mission would be to cook content and cue it for a musical review show called Nightlife. We’d also be making some content tweaks in another review, In Concert. This in the company of my most able Assistant/Programmer, the irascible Sean Cagney.

In the mean time, one of my other partners, Matt Skerritt, would be leading a shooting crew (well really it was just him, me, and our good friend & Grip Gregg Gilmore) in producing all of the custom on-board media that would go with the introduction of a new class of ship. Staterooms have televisions… And these ships all have unique identities in terms of marketing, information, and safety media. So Matt would be shooting and editing on board as soon as the ship left the Fincantieri Shipyard in Venice. By 10 days later he would have to be done creating many pieces of on-board media, just in time for a gala christening and the first cruise from Rotterdam.

It would be a chase to the finish for us both. And we would all do it in a virtual communications blanket. The ship’s onboard telecommunication and wireless internet services didn’t activate until 3 days before we reached Rotterdam. We were unable to access any media not with us on the ship. We couldn’t even call home or check emails… Ever seen what an email box looks like after 2 and a half weeks of not checking it ? Ugly…

But it also cleared the way for us to focus solely on the gigs at hand, which were numerous enough to demand it. Ultimately all the stage shows would be sync’d to SMPTE Timecode and run from a custom AMX control system. First we had to write all of our cues in Sean’s GrandMA console. Then identify our proper placement in TC, then merge with the lighting cue stack. Plenty of layers to peel technically. This in addition to generating super hot, pop content.

In our ’spare’ time we created all of the media for the christening ceremony itself. A huge dockside arena was constructed, and we would work with XL Video’s fabulous gang from London to setup multiple LED screens, roll content from a Catalyst, and catch onstage fun with a sizable IMAG setup. Various Holland America historical pieces, some ship building documentary, and a tribute to the Dutch Royal Family (who attended).

Ultimately we docked in Rotterdam, carried the proverbial day, and delivered a sparkling, vastly entertaining new ship to the cruise mad masses.

Congratulations to Holland America. My what a large boat you have !!

Now off to Amsterdam for some Rest & Recoup… “Hey isn’t that Patrick Dierson and Jay-Z in that Bentley ? I love Europe !”

Today I was preparing materials to do a lecture in Korea… It’s on the evolution of modern lighting and multimedia. Kind of taking it from some of the first contemporary attempts (Laurie Anderson, Tommy on Broadway, U2’s Zoo TV… On through to recent Nine Inch Nails, and my own Nickelback)…

And I was just blown away by how absolutely right on the ‘earlier’ stuff was. People know I’m fond of that Robert Edmund Jones quote about combining actor and onstage image. I mean that was 1919 !!! The ideas aren’t recent, but man the practice has gotten extremely accomplished. I really have respect for people like Laurie Anderson and Willie Williams who led the way sytlisticially to so much of what we see today. ZooTV is pretty frickin fly man. Just try to do stuff that they haven’t already… I dare you ! Really. It’s easy to do what’s done before. I want to go out there and NEVER hear “oh that looks great, just like that U2 show I saw”… I love seeing what they did, where they’ve been, then spinning around and looking some other direction.

I’ve got a great article cooking on Artistic Intuition… Keep an eye out for it in March… Maybe April. I have several really fabulous designers talking about that first artistic ‘gut instinct’, where it comes from (for them), and how they then communicate and manifest it. Shaping up to be a real hum dinger.

Peace Out,

BOB BONNIOL

Wow, what an LDI. Sometimes I approach the “off Vegas” year with less enthusiasm, but ALWAYS I come away amazed at the substantive experiences, meetings, and contacts. Perhaps away from the sturm and drang (glitter and clang) of Vegas, people’s brains can settle down enough to really drill down and talk about interesting stuff…

1st impression of “new things”… The two things that got me really excited were the new ChamSys MagicQ Console, and the new D3 media mapping and visualizing software from United Visual Artists.

The MagicQ console is the first widely available console I’ve seen (PRG has stepped up and bought substantial numbers), that treats the video programming requirements on an equal footing with lighting. Functionalities like importation of video clips right into the console palettes, plus advanced, intuitive, and very customizable ‘personalities’ for dealing with almost all the major servers make it a delight to program. The console’s ability to operate according to several familiar syntax structures (including Hog, MA, Celco, and others) makes it instantly approachable to many programmers and operators. In addition to my own experimenting, I saw Matt Mills (LD for 3 Doors Down), and Steve Fallon (LD for Skynrd and Programmer for Trace Atkins) glowing with glee as they demo’d the units. I’ll be getting training very soon.

The D3 software from United Visual Artists is a really different animal. Is it a… Media Server ? Yes. Is it a previz system ? Yes. Is it a pixel mapper ? Mmm Hmm. Is it unlike any other example of these individual things ? Oh yeah ! D3 was developed by UVA in their effort to create a fantastic, interactive, intuitive control interface for their own installations, as well as for other designers like Willie WIlliams on U2’s recent Vertigo Tour. The result is an amazing, simple, yet vastly powerful 3 dimensional control environment that lets you visualize display and lighting locations, map media across surfaces, program lighting moves… All while navigating an interface that isn’t delineated by seconds and frames, but instead within the musical paradigm of notes, measures, and bars. I think there will be a select bunch of designers who grock the power of this directly and will be using it to accomplish unprecedentedly COOL design. XL Video will be repping this software for the time being here in North America.

The Master Class sessions were phenomenal. Getting to really dig into the insights of Willie Williams regarding U2 and George Michael; hearing Caryl Glaab’s exlanations of the creative processes of Blue Man Group; SEEING Blue Man Group. Josh Weisberg’s super informative system design lecture; The BLOW AWAY case study of Bradley University’s The Adding Machine leading into the “future is Now” session with Josh Fleitell demonstrating pixel mapping with his iPhone, and video ‘conducting’ with a WiiMote… The participants literally wouldn’t allow the sessions to end, pushing the load out crew back by more than an hour and a half to soak up more MAD knowledge.

Always I get as much out of those sessions as I give.

SO once again Ellen has talked us into doing it all again next year. See you in Vegas…

Fundamental to any use of media in a design is playback. Kinetic media necessarily must ‘play’, and so therefore there must be a way !

And of ways, there are many.

Some of you might have seen my recent Blog Post about creating live. In this case the playback system would hopefully be attuned to quick preview of media and FX; coupled with equally quickly accessible controls to get that media into the channel, and doing something beautiful. This level can include some of the most imaginative, cost effective, DIY, and innovative methods for playback. But we’ll pick up that thread in a moment.

First we need to go back and examine what some might call an older world paradigm, the use of hardware playback devices like disk drive based HD decks (think Doremi, or FFV), production quality DVD players (shudder), or even decks using media like tape or (yes they still exist) Laser Disk Players. This is analog. It has the benefit of being known. It’s also surprising in the degree that it is still used.

More recently we’ve seen a proliferation of multi head playback environments that are hardware/software based. Systems like Watchout and AVStumpfl’s Wings Platinum spring to mind… But this category also contains some of the newest solutions, things like Q-Lab…

And then of course, the core of most conversations about playback among serious geeks is the computer based Media Servers able to interface with lighting or show control systems. Axon, Catalyst, Hippotizer, Maxxedia, M-Box, Pandora’s Box. These are to be found out on the majority of concert tours. They work via a methodology that their control can be unified with lighting control, and that they can serve as a combination of playback solution and media management device.

What you will use will be, must be, driven by a balance of what you absolutely need to meet the design requirements of the show and how much money you have in your budget.

And it is a balancing act that will continue throughout your career. Shows with limited budgets often provide amazing creative opportunities. Shows with bigger budgets allow you to use robust gear, and have the comfort of redundant backup. But both scenarios allow for satisfying the design, satisfying yourself, and even breaking new ground.

I’m going to finish this discussion at LDI, in the Projection Master Classes… Why don’t you come and check it out ?