Video and Computer Signals over CAT5
Here at Projectionfreak, we were early adopters of this technology. It’s now come into it’s own and is quite popular. With the advent of higher-end home theater installs as well as industrials, tours, and museum/corporate installs, we’ve all seen the need for getting signal to far away places. The thing is, it’s not only for distance. With tour budgets tightening and space/weight at a premium, structured cabling has definitely solved a lot of problems. But what is it all about? Let me just start by saying that this area of the signal transmission industry is HUGE. From manufacturers of cable all the way to people that wire their own home theaters and “swear this will work”, the opinions and info will vary greatly. Your individual project will have unique requirements and you should weigh all the options before purchasing or trying to rig up a system. Keep in mind too, that different cable/balun combos will be able to transmit higher resolutions different distances- so again check the spec! We’ll cover the raw basics:
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Small Production- Big Projection, Indy Opera does both well
Just got back from a great meeting with Joachim Schamberger at the Basile Opera Center. They’ve wrapped the 2011 production of La Tragedie de Carmen and by all accounts it was quite a success. In a big departure from their normal productions-complete with grandiose sets, a huge performance hall, and a full orchestra- they’ve pared down the whole process and now use a former sanctuary of a church. This fact doesn’t take away from the quality of the performance however, indeed, it is a whole new vehicle. The format is tight and close and…..wait a minute- we talk about projection here!
Joachim has long been a practitioner of “virtual theater design” a process he describes here. In practical terms it means lots of great projection. They used two Panasonic PT-D5500, and one Panasonic PT-D7700- both single-chip DLP’s. The 77 served as the main background unit with a 55 as online backup and the second 55 as the surtitles above the set. Why not converge the 55′s and use the 77 for surtitles you ask? Because converging the 55′s is next to impossible and due to the depth and width (something like 32′), they needed the most pristine image they could get. Those units are also very prone to distorting geometry and focus issues when the temperature goes up, so this configuration made sense to me. The backgrounds were driven from a Macbook Pro 17″ with Vidvox’s VDMX (soon to be reviewed here on PF). The surtitles are of the generic Powerpoint variety. Using VDMX, Joachim is able to send stills as well as .movs with equal ease. A lot of the moving imagery are very slow transitions, so control of the timing is paramount. He used FCP and Photoshop almost exclusively. With the 7700, brightness was overall very good, and required very little sidelight for the actors to not appear to be “projected on”, at the same time allowing for some actors to fade into the background and be less noticeable during tacet parts. There are a couple of projects coming up with the Indy Opera that’ll involve projection in the future, so stay tuned for more! Here’s the prOn from the event:
Bill Explains the LCD
This one’s making it’s rounds in the Blogosphere, but it is highly accurate. Essentially the same for projector technology, with the exception of more heat dissipation properties and PJ’s that use 3LCD technology. At it’s basis though, you really get the physics involved.
Tools, Tips, and Tricks of the Trade
PART 3- Signal
So you have a high-end projector, LED wall, or display and now you have to send it signal. Â Whatever you do- do NOT use “the little yellow RCA” jack. In fact, that type of input doesn’t even exist on most professional gear and is dying a rapid death. The type of signal you use in your project will have a HUGE impact on quality. The end-result will largely depend on the the type of cabling you use, the source of your material, and the means to deliver that material. Whatever the case, you’ll want to use the right signal. Most content starts in the digital domain with HD video(either disc or tape-based), 3DS, Photoshop, Cinema 4D, (hopefully not) Powerpoint, or any other content creation software. In some cases you’ll have digital stills (which you’d run through PS anyway). We’ll cover those technologies in future posts, but the fact is you’ll need to deliver their output (whatever it is) to your display whatever it may be. (more…)
Tools And Terms Of The Trade
Part 2- Resolutions, Does Size Really Matter?
No, not from New Years…
There are many definitions of the word resolution but for projection purposes we use “the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed”. Projectors have what’s called a “native” resolution, that is, the resolution that the DMD chips inside the projector are capable of displaying. For a long time XGA (or 1024w x 768h) was the norm, but with the advent of HD that number has increased to the point where 1920×1080 (or 1080p) projectors are pretty common for even the smallest home theater setups. Most of the big-gun projectors we talk about on Projectionfreak are at least SXGA+ (1280×1024) or better.
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