New Vista Spyder X20 And Christie M Series Projectors Make Debut

30 October 2009 14.28 BST

Back in March this year, Manchester-based rental staging company, A to V, became one of the first customers for the new Christie Roadster HD10K-M 3-chip DLP projectors, which were immediately pressed into service on a major product launch for Bosch.

The company originally purchased six projectors but have now doubled that quantity — principally to service a corporate awards spectacular for another household name, Co-operative Retail. Nine of the Christie units formed a pivotal part of the production, which took place in an unusual format at Manchester’s G-MEX Centre in late October, and at the same time A to V debuted the new Spyder X20 processor from Vista Systems (a Christie company).

The client's event organiser had wanted an ‘in-the-round’ presentation rather than traditional style and had already looked at placing screens around the periphery. They also wanted to create an extra ‘wow’ factor, so in conjunction with lighting company DBN, A to V conceived a circular screen and stage idea. The concept was approved and a set company was tasked with custom building the rig, which was supplied in segments and seamed, covered and finished on site before being flown.

Using the Co-operative’s slogan ‘Good with Food’ as the theme for the event, six of the M Series projectors were directed onto a 360° screen, measuring 10 metres in diameter and 3.5m high (9500 x 1080 pixels). This featured a single image, with blending carried out in the new X20. The screen was custom made in rigid canvas material to optimise the computer, DVD and media server feeds.

The main screen projectors were flown from the middle of three concentric circles, which formed a 38-metre diameter quad-rig truss, via Unicol poles with spigots enabling the devices to be inverted.

In total, A to V fielded nearly 2,000 sq ft of screen — since in addition, three 21’ x 12’ repeater displays, set at 120° intervals, distributed an identical image around the auditorium on the outer walls.

A to V drove the X20 to its limits, using all eight outputs — seven on the screens and one on the preview monitors — and seven inputs (with up to 14 layers at one point, pushing it to near capacity).

Allan Hindley envisages a bright future for the new processor. “It drastically reduces the number of processors required — in fact to have achieved what we did for the Co-op with other processors would have required eight 4U rack-space devices — so a single X20 represents an eighth of the real estate. The provision of an inbuilt router makes the system even more compact while there are also some useful features in terms of the transition and keying processes,” he noted.

Christie’s compact 3-chip DLP M projectors displayed a similar degree of flexibility, with their dual mercury lamps providing optimum performance, efficiency and cost of ownership. A further advantage of the M Series is that it includes four resolutions, WXGA, SX+, HD and WUXGA and compatibility with a broad range of high-quality lenses – all with true Intelligent Lens System (ILSTM) capabilities.

One of the challenges facing Allan Hindley’s team had been to get the DVI signals up to the rig and along the truss — which represented a 120-metres distance from the control; hence, A to V turned to their own bespoke optical fibre systems.

“We have been using fibre for a long time but we also needed to make sure there were no issues in terms of latency,” said Allan Hindley.

“Since we needed six identical systems — one for each screen — we opted for six sets of CSI TX/RX units utilising single-mode fibre — made to our specifications — rather than the multi-mode system we already have. Not only have our Tx/Rx hardware systems changed, but we have also changed the physical fibre as well.” The CSI units were provided by True Colours and the fibre by Wren.

Summing up, Allan Hindley said the show was an unqualified success. “The Roadster HD10K-M’s performed magnificently, and combined with lasers and pyrotechnics, contributed to a memorable show.”

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