High End Systems' DLHDs Enhance PBS Christopher Cross Broadcast

	Photo courtesy of KLRU-TV, Austin PBS. Photo by Gary Miller.

On January 20th, Grammy award-winning musician Christopher Cross recorded a PBS Pledge Special at ACL Live at The Moody Theater. The concert will be broadcast on PBS and was produced by KLRU-TV, Austin PBS. To augment the visuals on camera, veteran lighting director Walter Olden specified the use of four High End Systems DLHD fixtures.

Olden says, "It was my job to make this broadcast look as good as it possibly could, based on the budget and concept the production came up with. The band's production team had video content for a number of the songs already recorded, but getting information about this material was not easy. Our plan was to upload the material into the DLHDs and then play these images when they were needed. Well, we finally found out that would not work -- their guy had to play this content from his computer on his format with a click track for the band. To make this work, we had to bring in a large video projector for these images. The format and resolution of this material varied quite a bit, and to make it look good, it was presented in a smaller size than our full screen area. So we decided to play that video in the middle of the screen area and have the DLHDs fill in around it. Our programmer, Jon Mytyk, made that happen, and his task became to create images around the videos for the songs that blended in -- without taking away from them. He also created new content for the songs that needed content. The only material available was the stock images on the DLHDs, and we only had about thirty minutes before the taping!"

"We had always wanted to use the four DLHDs to cover the 38' wide by 20' tall image area of our projection surface, to blend those four units into one big image. When we had to add an additional big projector to the mix, we were not sure how this would work. Jon was able to create a box in the center of the blended image, so we could merge the two types of images into one. It took Jon a little time to make it happen, but he did -- and he did a tremendous job on this project."

Mytyk explains, "I worked with Walter to match levels and the mood of the images that I put onscreen. We did work around Cross' touring video system that was used for a few songs. The DLHDs were far brighter with a higher resolution, so we tried to keep the images and intensity matched to the touring system. Blurring the images from the DLHD to create a more ambient look was ultimately the solution. The Cross production personnel were great, but somewhat limited and thinly stretched, so our goal was to have a good image at all times, and to be prepared to cover for any unexpected issues on stage. We found this to be a great strategy, as they had a video output problem that caused a show stop. We were able to step in and keep the overall look quite nice."

Mytyk used a Full Boar 4 for programming and operation. "We tweaked the color balance to match the camera's white balance just before doors opening. This was a simple task, as I had left a global effects channel open. The DLHDs were used the entire show as an atmospheric backdrop. They were also used between songs for the primary poster image. This gave good color and image resolution, and read well on camera. The DLHDs were technologically more advanced and brighter, which had to be accounted for in terms of content choice and output intensity. In the end, the final 2x2 collage that the DLHD were used for had another projected image placed over top of it. We used a mask when needed (a blank content layer scaled and positioned to fit) as to not spill on to the touring projection system."

In closing, Olden says "the fixtures worked great, and we were very happy with how everything worked out. There is a great amount of content in the fixtures, and that made a big difference. We could not have done this production without the DLHDs."