Ben Miles
Ben Miles
Your Name:Ben Miles
Company Name:
Email: mixedemotionslondon@yahoo.com
Name of Project(s) related to Hippotizer: Coldplay Viva La Vida World Tour 2008-2009
Date used:
Since (c2002) Ver2!
How would you best describe yourself?
Designer and Programmer of Visuals. Video and Lighting Director and Projection Artist.
How did you first hear about the Hippotizer?
Nigel Saddler and some moving skeletons at a show in Paris
Did you specify the Hippotizer or was it supplied to you?
Specified
Have you used other media servers before you encountered Hippotizer?
Yes, I have used most of them!
Which Model of Hippotizer are you using?
4 x HD (8 x HD for Stadiums)
How are you displaying the media?
I am using six Pufferfish Spheres, one 3m diameter and five 2m spheres. The spheres are run by Barco CLM projectors. I feed them 1400x1050 to fill the sphere. With four Hippos all in dual mode I have 8 independent outputs to send to the six spheres. The fourth hippo is a spare, which I run in the background with an interchangeable ArtNet address, then using a Barco DVI matrix I can switch any sphere to any Hippo output. This also gives me the ability to send any one of the four SDI live inputs to any sphere during the show.
What display mode are you running (single/dual/pan)?
Most of the tour I have been running the Hippos in Dual mode to give me the two independent outputs needed to do the spheres. However for the `stadiums I will have 8xHDs running in Single mode to get maximum power to run multiple layers of HD content.
Are you using Pixel Mapper on the project?
no
What features of the Hippotizer do you like most?
I love the effects Hippotizer has to offer, the more you work with the Hippos the faster you get at learning which effects work well together and how to achieve different visual goals exactly as you picture them. Using the effects you can easily turn stills into moving images, essentially creating content on the fly.
I also really like the Zoo Keeper front end. It is very simple; one fader/button = one function. You never find yourself trying to find ‘that button’ which you do with other servers. It is pleasing to operate as it looks like hardware but with all the values in numeric format as well it is very detailed and informative for finding and editing values quickly.
I use the zoo keeper remotely at Front of House as my Hippos are backstage. This saves so much extra cabling and space at front of house. I plug the hippos in at the beginning of the day and do not need to touch them again until I put the lid back on their flight case as I can do everything remotely with my laptop including booting-up and shutting down.
What features would you like to see in future versions?
More SDI inputs and outputs.
Capture/record options for the output or combinations of layers to re-input as mpeg files.
More patching ability between layers and outputs. So you can decide which output each layer goes to and combinations of them. Some resizing of outputs by drag and click. When using different shapes of LED walls that move around in the show and become different segments of screen they become different outputs and resolutions as a cue of the show.
Further to the above capture ideas…Some record/capture options for the SDI inputs so you can store (or ISO) the whole show of one input. If it compressed (or transcoded) it at the end of the show and then labeled the video files in timecode you could then recall parts of the video file by timecode for the next show. A bit like live Final Cut
