Green Hippo

The Expert Hippotologist

The Expert Hippotologist

Being asked why he uses Hippotizer media servers Jon9 (Jon Stolzberg) simply replies “They work”. Other reasons he mentions are the interface and the features and toolsets offered with each of Green Hippo’s media servers.

As a special commendation Jon9 has dedicated an extra page on his website to his love of Hippotizer media servers. An expert programmer and content designer, Jon9 has set-up his own company ‘Holonyne’ and has used Hippotizers on a wide variety of projects over the last four years, from smaller art installations to high-profile multi-server commercial projects.

 ‘Holonyne’ provides a custom high-performance Hippotizer setup, which includes:
-    1x Hippotizer HD with an HD-SDI input card installed
-    1x Panasonic digital image mixer
-    1x Panasonic remote control camera (1080p)
-    1x Barco ScreenPro II
-    1x Samsung Blu-Ray
-    1080p video format throughout and an all-digital signal path

The system has been used on various projects, including at the opening of Supperclub LA in Hollywood, and at the prestigious TEDx Caltech Conference on 14th January 2011.

At the TEDx conference Jon9 was on stage with jazz musician Lyle Mays and his band of several musicians and music technologists creating improvisational music and video. Here the Hippotizer had incorporated MIDI control elements at 1080p and the group used mathematical expressions to drive midi-signals, displaying abstracts of existing video footage of physicist Richard Feynman as well as incorporated live feeds of the musicians.

To see the the impovisational music and video click on the links below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x8UoV0xBsVI

http://vimeo.com/17703000

Another high-profile project is the art installation ‘See Change’ at Tom Bradley Arrivals terminal at LAX airport. Jon9 worked on this project in conjunction with Green Hippo’s Special Projects department. It incorporates 57 HippoCritter’s running four layers each and three Hippotizer HDs running eight layers each, outputting to a filmstrip of 58 screens (2x 29 screens back to back), a videowall of 25 screens, twelve 60” plasmas, as well as a 9ft x 12ft Barco LED wall (6mm).  Jon9 designed and programmed the multimedia display and control system and for the 96 screens used in total this system processes approximately 1,658,888,000 individual pixels of vision data per second and produces images with resolutions up to 37,120 pixels wide.

http://vimeo.com/20482520

The installation is featuring works by 17 artists from all over the United States, who were commissioned by the LA Department of Cultural Affairs, and is planned to be a permanent fixture at LAX’s Tom Bradley terminal.

Last but by no means least, Jon9 created the ‘Virtularium’ and ‘Veodome’, immersive environments based on dome structure: “This concept for dome projection is based on the use of networked Hippotizers and multiple hexagonal screens instead of a single seamless screen.”

The Virtularium was showcased in partnership with ‘Vortex Immersion Media’ for the ‘Le Dome de Paris’ event at LA’s Centre Studios: “Virtularium is a multi-video programmable system for immersive environments like domes and speciality venues and events.” In total the mapping on the 50ft dome structure was created with three GrassHoppers and eight projectors.  Instead of creating a 4K dome master, the Hippotizers were programmed in a multi-image edge-blended montage – a kind of dome videowall.

The Veodome is created from multiple hexagonal screens with the projection being controlled by several networked Hippotizers using the server’s UberPan component: “Veodome is a portable immersive projection dome environment, programmed on multiple Hippotizer servers mixing video stills of any size, resolution and format. It uses advanced production and programming techniques to create a multi-image immersive environment.”

Jon9’s various projects show-case amazingly well Hippotizer’s capability to be part in creating new experiences within an unusual environment and he uses the latest technology to push the boundaries of dynamic environments in technology and art:

“The best feature of the Hippotizer architecture is the flexibility of the interface.  It is a system that provides a lot of tools that work well together – so as an artist I’m constantly discovering new ways to use them.  That is not only exciting, but it means that I can keep my work fresh and continue to explore new visual territories through the Hippotizer platform.”

“My next challenge is to integrate Hippotizers with networked videowall processors for a massive global collaborative video art sculpture premiering in December, 2012. (www.pyramandala.com)”

http://www.jon9.com/