latest news headlines
Mbox Fuels Energy of New Coldplay Video
The raw energy of Coldplay's newest video, ‘Speed of Sound’, grows out of the innovative use of LED lights and a novel approach to control.
The video's backdrop — and its major source of light — is a back wall made of 640 Versa TUBEs. The Versa TUBE, from Element Labs, looks like a fluorescent tube but contains a row of pixels composed of red, green and blue LEDs. Designers can map pixels from a video signal directly to the pixels in the tube.
What sets ‘Speed of Sound’ apart, however, is that production designer Michael Keeling used PRG's Mbox to serve the video to the LED lights. Mbox is a media server that allows designers to manipulate source material — including video, still images and effects — directly from a DMX lighting console. Programmers instantly can change color, scale, 3-D rotation, rate of playback, degree of transparency and other elements, all without waiting for rendering time.
"The Mbox is a phenomenal unit — it allowed the Whole Hog control console to send media files to the LED light sources and gave us an unlimited variety of end results," Keeling says. "In recent years, I've been bored with doing the same thing with lighting. Tools like this have rejuvenated my soul about what lighting can be."
He adds: "I'm really impressed with PRG's attention to the video market and what they are doing to cross between lighting and video."
"Using Mbox to provide video to the LED lights allowed the designers to make adjustments on the fly," explains John Lee, account executive, concert touring for PRG. "Because Mbox creates real-time effects, they could operate the tube wall much like they would operate moving lights for a concert."
"The wall's structure provides real interest because of the regular gaps in the LED lights; your mind tries to fill in the holes," adds Andre Lear, media server engineer. "And Mbox gave us so much control and flexibility, it helped Michael make the most of the wall."
‘Speed of Sound’ was directed by Mark Romanek, with production design by Michael Keeling. PRG provided the Mbox media server, which provided output to VersaTUBE units by Element labs, as well as the staff to program it. Andre Lear was the media server engineer. Martin Phillips was the Whole Hog programmer.
6th June 2005
HEADLINES
news archive
search stories
FOOTNOTE: Select the news type you require in the red band above; this will enable you to see the current news stories from that section
© 1999 - 2012 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories
