Pixels Puts Contemporary Art In The Picture With BrightSign Media Players

BrightSign media players are currently helping three such artists to engage with the public at three London art installations, which challenge viewers to see the world in a different way.

The exhibitions are taking place at the Hayward Gallery, Victoria Miro gallery and Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, respectively featuring artists Pippiloti Rist, Doug Aitken and Yang Fudong. All three use BrightSign HD210 high definition media players - distributed in the UK by Dunstable-based Pixels - to draw the audience into the dramatic and thought-provoking world of the artists.

The systems for each installation were supplied by Olive Audio Visual and installed by Simeon Coreless and Alistair Ashe of KS Objective LLP.

“I have previously used BrightSign media players at installations by the artists Matt Stokes and Antony McCall,” said Coreless. “I was impressed with their robustness - once you’ve installed and programmed them, you can basically forget about them, even if they’re running 24 / seven.”

Naturally, the artists themselves have a keen interest in the technology being used to show their art. Wanting to display it exactly as they intend, their expectations can be exacting.

“The artist can be very choosy about what you are doing with their work, impression-wise,” says Coreless. “There is an ongoing balancing act between that and budget constraints. One big benefit of the BrightSign player is that it has provided a great option to fulfil both the artist’s specifications and what we are able to provide.

“Budget-wise they are appealing to our clients because there is very little difference in terms of playback quality between them and units which cost several times the price. It’s a more cost-effective solution that still does exactly what we want it to do.”

In addition, recent updates to the units have seen the ability to use different codecs, so if artists want to use a codec like H.264, Olive AV can now do it with the BrightSign players. 

“With Yang Fudong’s show, he was reasonably happy with the way it had been set up in previous venues, but we encouraged him to try somedifferent codecs to improve the image quality,” said Coreless.

“As a result, he is really happy with the results at Parasol Unit. One of the things that’s great about Pixels is the way that the company’s Norman Garland is so proactive,” he continued.

“He’s a good guy to work with, if we ever have any issues he is happy to get on the phone and talk it through. We have had very few issues with these installations, but it’s great to have the confidence of knowing that backup is there if you need it.”

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