Spyders Drive Media at Microsoft Windows 8 Launch at New York City's Pier 57There were Spyders in the house when Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 at New York City's Marine & Aviation Pier 57, which had been extensively transformed into a press event venue for the launch announcement. Data engineer Dan Barry, who is based in Seattle, Washington, chose two Vista Systems Spyder X20s supplied by VER to drive the headline-making show. "All Tier 1 Microsoft events are run by Spyder these days," he reports. "There really is no other choice. The Spyder X20 is the most reliable, most flexible high-resolution switching system available today." Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer keynoted the launch, which marked the biggest overhaul of the company's operating system in 17 years. Windows 8 has been designed to run on popular tablets and PCs; another version is targeted to smartphones. The event also introduced the Surface tablet, Microsoft's first foray into PC hardware. Barry deployed Spyders in two rooms built inside the Hudson River pier. In the main tent a Spyder drove a 40' wide 16x9 screen. The second space, known as the Surface Room for delivering details on the new tablet, was a reduced-size version of the main tent. Barry worked the Surface Room, which boasted a 16x9 screen, three cameras, six computer sources, and three playback sources. "We had a lot of feeds going in and out of the system. Any time you get more than one screen, one destination, you really want a Spyder there," says Barry. "The Spyders performed rock solid. They were great." Barry customized High Resolution Systems' software-based universal device control (UDC) to drive the Spyder in his room. "I built a user interface on the UDC that looked like Windows 8," he explains. "Then we ran the UDC using Surface." 
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