The Christie Spyder X80 multi-screen windowing processor in combination with Christie Terra SDVoE technology brought the gigantic 50 by 9 meter LED screen at Barcelona Beach Festival 2019 (BBF) to life.
BBF was held at Platja del Fòrum beach. The festival is famous not only for bringing together the world’s biggest names in dance music on one stage, but also for its incredible sound and wealth of visual effects.
Stonevent provided the screen for the festival and MappScreen, specialists in audiovisual services for events, managed the content. The mega-screen was an array of LED screens with differing pixel pitches divided around the stage in distinct setups. Each screen had support and flying systems that fit with the festival’s overall design.
Over 25 million pixels are powered through three 4K main outputs and another three 4K backup outputs. The project suited MappScreen down to the ground because the slogan of these specialists in giant screen management is “Screens, the bigger, the better.”
“We have been working on this festival alongside Stonevent for years,” said Xavier Cruz Rubio, CEO, MappScreen. “Basically we do all the calculations and pixel mapping for the event’s mega-screen, which was 50 meters wide by 9 meters tall this year, as well as managing content.”
For this year’s festival, MappScreen used Christie equipment for the first time with the performing VJs connected to the Spyder X80, sending a 4K signal by both HDMI and DisplayPort. The Spyder managed the video jockey’s (VJ) signals; scaling the 4K to three 4K outputs and relaying the signal to the screen’s six NovaStar processors.
Cruz Rubio said, “Thanks to the Spyder’s number of 4K inputs, we were able to connect all the artists with a specific cable for each one. That way we avoided having to share inputs and cables between the different artists or having to hot-swap live.”
The MappScreen CEO was delighted with the performance of the Christie Spyder X80: “As always, it worked to perfection, proving that it is the only equipment on the market today capable of powering such high resolutions on giant screens.”
In addition, MappScreen used the Christie Terra AV-over-IP solution to extend audio, video, as well as embedded time code, (thanks to the built-in synchronization and metadata support) using fibre cable between FOH and the VJ’s desk on stage. “We are more than happy with Terra. If Terra didn’t exist, we would have had to use conventional fibre transmitters and receivers, with an equal amount of RJ45 cable to extend the VJs time code,” Cruz Rubio concluded.
