Encompassing a Data Suite, Network Monitoring Room, auditorium and ‘breakout’ caf_, the Stockport facility enables customers to both watch and take part in demonstrations of BT’s latest innovations. All media is stored digitally on the BT network and delivered from a ‘server farm’ of 40 PCs, using KVM via IT, while patch panels and floor traps provide the option of plugging in ‘roving laptops’.
The complete system operates under the master control of AMX NetLINX processing and a Christie-compatible hand-held touch screen, while Smart-e devices take inputs from a range of sources via the SmartNET SNX 64 x 16 switching matrix, which routes signals to eight zones (providing a DVI feed to the Christie Wall Manager). Other destinations include seven wall-mounted 42in plasma screens, six small LCD monitors in the Data Suite and other OHP. The facility also features Tandberg video conferencing facilities.
“There are really two key elements to the nature of this application,” Brant Eckett, marketing manager EMEA at Christie, told II. “One is the use of multiple displays in a ‘blended’ application. This permits BT to utilise the DS+ series’ built in edge-blending facility to create a seamless panoramic screen display. In conjunction with each projector’s (very flexible) picture-in-picture display, BT can use the full ‘canvass’ or part of it to play-out multiple sources where and when BT wishes within the combined display area – and with the DS+ Series all these features come as standard.
“The second element reflects the performance characteristics of the DS+ series itself. [They] utilise 3-chip DLP technology (the highest image processing technology outside of professional cinema exhibition), combined with 10-bit image processing and a Xenon illumination lamp system. All three elements provide to give outstanding image quality; and a weak link in any three has an adverse affect on image quality. For customers like BT where the accurate replication of corporate brand is a key requirement, Xenon illumination becomes essential, since it is the only lamp technology that can represent the same colour spectrum as natural light.”
BT Showcase manager Asif Saghir said: “This solution has not only enabled us to design a curved screen – thanks to the Twist module we can [also] pull and compress the image. The DS+5Ks have performed excellently, and the special mounting plates provided by Christie for the projectors, along with laser-mapping technology, ensure optimum picture alignment.”
The BT Showcase AV integration is supported and maintained by Audio Visual Machines (AVM), a London-based specifier, designer and integrator of complex AV systems for corporate and public sector customers.
