Vista Systems Spyder Revs Up Autosport International Show When Massteknik UK, a specialist in providing total video systems for major live events, was charged with supplying all the hardware and content management for the huge screen at the center of the Live Action Arena at the NEC’s (National Exhibition Centre) Autosport International Show in Birmingham, UK, it selected Vista Systems Spyder to control the dynamic visuals.
The arena, a boisterous, fun mix of cars and theatre popular with both race fans and promoters, featured 17 sold-out shows in four days. Massteknik was brought on board to furnish something exciting and different opting for a single Unitek V9 LED screen measuring more than 105 square yards to fill the vast Hall Five at the NEC.
The Spyder, from Joys Productions, was chosen to take multiple inputs and multiple video layers and move them around the huge screen in real time.
“We knew what Christopher Milnes, managing director of Massteknik and overall project manager for the video, wanted to achieve with the show, and Spyder is without question the most versatile video layering system for a live environment,” notes Peter Joy, managing director of Joys Productions. “Because of its native high-definition capabilities, Spyder is more normally seen in high-end corporate events, but it was its live manipulation facilities that Christopher wanted to exploit.”
Joy fed prerecorded footage, dynamic backgrounds and live camera capture to Spyder, which layered the material on the giant LED screen, which had a superwide aspect ratio of 5.6:1. Milnes and Chris Perkins of Cue Media used a combination of handheld cameras, small locked-off units, big lenses and jib cameras to bring the dramatic action of the race track to the big screen.
“It was clear that Milnes wanted the Spyder to be the creative tool of the show, and it most certainly was in every way,” states Malcolm Forbes, event organizer for Haymarket Exhibitions.
Both the Spyder and huge screen performed faultlessly at every show. “It was a fairly harsh environment for the equipment to be in for eight days,” says Milnes, “but there was absolutely nothing from jib to computers to screen that missed a beat.”