Print

Print
Hi Lyndsey,

From a content production point of view, I'd second Jez's points about the technical challenges (we use onelan). H264 has been the best format for us in terms of production and quality also. We work to a format of 9600x1080 so in terms of production we've rendered our video as a series of stills which we've then split into five 1920x1080 videos which are synced via onelan. We've used Natron rather than Premier/After Effects to author.

Matt

On 17 August 2016 at 13:52, Jez Burn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi Lyndsey,

Here at the NHM we use Brightsign in the Exhibitions and OneLan for the Digital Signage.

We currently have a 6no. 65” Curved OLED 4K screen video wall in a 2 by 3 format (screens in landscape) driven by 6no Brightsign 4K players. There is also a 7th 4K Brightsign connected to a projector displaying subtitles alongside. The six screens are setup as one image and so to get the resolution we needed to make the images look stunning (or text readable up close) we produced the content in 7680px by 6480px.

There have been many technical challenges with this setup including:-

·        Getting the 7 players to be absolutely frame accurately sync’d so there is no lag between screens

·        The full res video has to be split into 6 separate 3840px by 2160px videos and then uploaded to each player

·        The encoding of the videos using H265 (we use Premier and After Effects to author) to be compatible with the 4K Brightsign players is fickle to say the least. We still need to do some work on this…

We haven’t tried the ‘Brightwall’ part of the software which is supposed to take care of this sort of thing for you as we are not sure if it can handle this type of resolution. We also haven’t used the Web based content management system as when we had a demonstration it seemed a little ‘clunky’. Elsewhere in the exhibitions we have single HD players driving individual screens, are not connected to the network (no need to update frequently) that also have touchscreen or button interfaces and are VERY reliable.

 

We have one instance of 4no. 55” HD screen video wall in a 4 by 1 landscape format. This is driven by one 1no. OneLan 4K player which feeds a video splitter (Datapath X4) which has 4no. HD outputs, one connected to each screen.

We also have 4no. OneLan players each connected to a 40” HD screen in portrait ‘near’ each other where at certain points the content is sync’d to give the impression that the video is across all four screens. This synchronisation is actually achieved in the Web content management system. We haven’t tried to run a more than 4no. screen video wall using multiple OneLan boxes but it may be possible. The thing we really like about the OneLan system is the content management system. The layouts, playlists and schedules are easy to setup. We have folders on the server that the Marketing Team can upload their content to and the system does the rest. The Onelan 4K player will run H264 encoded files, which we have found the encoding to be more stable and reliable for (the Brightsign 4K players only run 4K H265 files). The interface to update new content is as simple as dragging the new content into the relevant folder, then publishing the ‘channels’ that use this content folder. Onelan also offer a very good support/information service in the UK (don’t know what it is like for outside UK).

Any further questions please let me know.

Kind Regards

Jez

Jez Burn | Technical Production Manager | Natural History Museum | Cromwell Road | South Kensington | London | SW7 5BD | E: [log in to unmask] | T: 020 7942 5432

 

 

 

 

From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lyndsey Clark
Sent: 16 August 2016 19:07
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Video Walls?

 

Good Evening,

 

I wonder if anybody on here can help? I am looking for hardware for a video wall which will regularly have new content commissioned for it.

The content will be from filmmakers usually (occasionally animators) and we’d ideally like the organisation to be able to load it onto the wall themselves so I need a hardware with media player or software to easily display a film file of the correct resolution across the screens that make up the wall (I haven’t worked out how many ‘tiles’ it is yet but the area is around the size of a big double doorway and that shape).

 

Can anyone recommend a system or approach?

It’s a cultural sector client and money is as always tight.

 

Thanks

Lyndsey

 

 

Lyndsey Clark

Interpretation - Exhibitions - Engagement projects

www.ltclark.co.uk

@ltclarkuk

 

**************************************************************** website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/ ****************************************************************

**************************************************************** website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/ ****************************************************************

**************************************************************** website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/ ****************************************************************