High Resolution Engineering Supports Pair of High-Profile Microsoft Corporate Projects

Microsoft called on High Resolution Engineering recently to support its annual Microsoft Global Exchange (MGX) and the Imagine Cup worldwide finals by providing the winning combination of Vista Spyders and Lightware DVI routers. The high-profile corporate events took place virtually back to back.

For a decade, High Resolution serviced MGX, the annual conference for Microsoft sales, marketing and technical field staff. MGX was held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, with more than 14,000 in attendance at a two-day gathering featuring presentations, demos, and awards.

At MGX, High Resolution paired a Spyder X20 with a 32x32 DVI Lightware router that included dual-link DVI input and output boards to switch screens onstage plus 23 downstage monitors. "We used our X20 to handle a computer with dual-link resolution that required twice the bandwidth to display resolutions of 2560x1536," explains Drew Taylor, a partner in High Resolution Systems. "Spyder X20 is the only scaling video processor on the market capable of handling dual-link DVI."

A second uniquely capable piece of equipment for MGX was High Resolution's Lightware DVI router, the only professional dual-link matrix available today, the company says. It was deployed to distribute, relock, and clean up the dual-link DVI signals before passing them to the Spyder X20.

Spyders and the Lightwave DVI routers turned up again in a different capacity for the international finals of the Microsoft-sponsored Imagine Cup in New York City. Now in its tenth year, the Imagine Cup is the world's premier student technology competition. One hundred twenty-eight teams competed this year; the event in Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theatre culminated in the World Festival & Awards Ceremony where High Resolution was on hand to run the show.

Taylor deployed multiple Spyder X20s and a Lightware 16x16SLIM DVI router, which interfaced with the mobile TV truck and theatre projection. The production company client provided the Spyder operator from Holland.

"We worked together to execute the event," says Taylor. "I designed and engineered the system and kept accurate system patch information so I could give the Spyder operator details on how everything was wired and hooked up and hand the operation of the system over to him."

Taylor concludes, "The Spyder 300s and Spyder X20 have proven again and again to be the most powerful and flexible solution to manage the entire video distribution system for live events. I also used our UDC 400 controller and UDC Spyder Touch controller for these events, testing and proving their flexibility and reliability. Our clients on all of these jobs have been more than pleased with the dependability of our equipment and execution of their live events."