got a reqeust. I have an event coming up in a couple of months that want to use 24 DL2 units. I would love to use the collage select, so that it would be one BIG picture. 2x24. or i guess i can try to break it up into three sections of 8 2x4, but rather have it as one big picture if possible.
Wow! Now that sounds cool. First question is: where is it at so I can come see it?
I'm guessing you mean a 12x2 so it would be 12 projectors wide by 2 high?
The problem isn't enlarging the grid in the software, it becomes what the resolution of the media file is so that by the time you dice it across that many screens it still looks good and that the file isn't so huge that it starts affecting playback.
If you look at the maximum footage sizes in the tables in the Collage Arrays page and multiply the Width and Height together you'll see that they are all around 750k pixels.
You want to keep the total pixels under 1 million when encoding a high res file for the Collage Generator. Above that and it will start to affect playback quality. There are places you can trade off though. If you need a higher resolution and thus a higher pixel count (i.e. larger file) then you can go larger as long as you aren't using the other layers for video.
We designed it such that you should be able to play 1 high res movie and at least 1 if not 2 standard res movies without any performance issues.
Making even larger high res movies for a larger array means you have to trade off the number of layers you use. You can also cheat on the resolution where the resolution per projector is less but the image quality is still acceptable. This depends on the type of content and how sharp the image has to be.
If those trade-off's aren't practical, then that is when it makes sense to split into several movies as you suggested, so any one unit is not trying to load the entire high res file that is being used by all 24 units.
The most important aspect is to keep the bit rate below 15Mbps for a movie. Any time you have a bit rate higher than that it forces the HDD to do multiple read cycles for a single frame.
In other words, when you are thinking about really high res files for use with the Collage system you have to keep the overall resolution down to the point that you aren't exceeding 15Mbps when playing the movie.
thanks for the info. this helps when planning for some future tours as well as for this event i am going to be apart of.
i think it sounds for ease as well as quality, to keep in down in size for this event. quality is better than one big picture. for one effect to have a sunset on the roof, i rather work and be creative than not have the access of quality for the other works during this time. since i will be running the show freehand to the bands performing and just going to the one big look for the dinner time.
Again thanks for all the help and research. I will send pictures once the event is down. should be a cool event. i am looking forward to it as well as having that many DL2 units running at the same time.
If you can shoot me some details about the event in email. I'd love to do some press on your use of the fixtures for that event if possible.
Keep in mind you can also do one huge Collage by splitting your source file into chunks. For example taking one huge media file and slicing it into 6 separate files that then runs in 4 units each. That would then give you 24 units in one huge panorama with high resolution and quality.
