Hannah Montana - Mobile Production Pro

videocA Place to Come and Dreamby michael a. beckA long time ago, in a galaxy far,far away, there was an electricalpower station that wanteda large wall upon which it couldtrack its system status. Theproject found its way to thedoor of Saco and thus wasborn the first LED video wall.In 2005 Nine Inch Nails hit the roadwith a video display the likes of whichhad not been seen before. It was calledV9…hi-definition LED video. Theworld of live video presentation wouldquite simply never be the same. Thecompany that gave us this product is aMontreal based group called LSI/Saco(traded on NASDAQ under the symbolLYTS).Three years after the introduction of V9,the industry still has not embraced thetechnology. Possibly, the problem may bethat Saco, as a company, is still a relativelyunknown entity within our business.While the V9 isn’t the only contributionLSI/Saco has made to the industry, itis the most important. It is a hi-density(thus high resolution) LED video productthat is able to present amazingly clearand powerful video images. However,there is more to V9 than just the highresoutput. It is super light-weight andtherefore, can be more liberally added toproduction design.Because of the high density of thepixels, the product can be made intocustom shapes with tighter tolerances. Agood example of this was the last PaulMcCartney tour, which had three ringsof V9 that flew in and out of sight infront of the upstage projection wall. Theblack border around the outside of therings was much more narrow than theywould have been had they been builtwith LED previously available on themarket.But wait, there more! Where the typicalpower output for an outdoor video wallLED screens that have been running non-stop for 11 years!is 5,000 NITS (the measuring unit formetering LED output) and the standardindoor output is 2,000 NTIS, V9 is capableof putting out 9,000!The scan rate of V9 is as impressiveas every other aspect of the product.Scanning at a rate of 60 to as many as90 frames per second, it has a delay ratefrom processor to output of one framewhere every other manufacturer in themarket is hitting 2.5 at best.That becomes an important issue whenyou see a 22 x 40 foot V9 wall like theone used on the Bon Jovi “Have a NiceDay” tour of 2006. This was the firsttour to ever go out that was HD from thecamera to the wall. The image was trulybreathtaking. But it wasn’t backgroundimage. It was IMAG. A one framelatency rate was bloody important whenyou were showing an image that was thatclean and large of John Bon Jovi singingor a close up of Richie Sambora’s handson a lead chop.As was said earlier, V9 is only one ofthe products put forth by LSI/Saco. Youjust can’t imagine the wild things that aregoing on in this place. And with all ofthe technology that this company comesup with, the greatest product provided toits clients, the greatest is individual focus.This company is the ultimate customshop. These people don’t have a bunchof gear laying around hoping that someonewill come in with a need for it, nordo they try to shoe horn a customer intowhat they have on the shelf.For example, they have the ability tometer the existing video wall that acustomer might have and calibrate thevalues of their product to match whatthe customer already has. Through this,they are able to establish a computerprofile of that customer. That profile canbe accessed the next time that particularclient comes back.The result is that it all looks the same.Even two different batches of LED’s areused because the in-house technologycreated by LSI/Saco is able to create amathematical match and hard code thatmatch into the modules. When they areready to upgrade to a better look, a newprofile is establishedand filedfor later reference.Johnathan Labbeeof SacoLSI/SacoMarketing ChiefJonathan Labbeeexplained,“Many other8 Tour Guide Journal