Hippotizer Offers a Bryte Solution for The 1975

	For the video shoot for The 1975's new single, "People," Bryte Design utilized Hippotizer Taiga media servers to drive an ambitious surround video setup. Photo: Jordan Curtis Hughes

The 1975's video for new single "People" sees the band performing the alt rock track inside an LED cube, supplied and installed by 80six Ltd, displaying swirling lyrics and quickfire, color-changing content. Filmed at London's Black Island Studios, the production was an ambitious surround-video setup, powered by a Hippotizer V4 Taiga servers from Green Hippo. Directed by Warren Fu, the video featured premade content inspired by the band's lyrics, created by Jon Emmony.

Simon Harris, project manager at Bryte Design, was approached by The 1975's tour director James Valpy to project manage the video content delivery. "Set up was simple, utilizing Hippotizer's Output Manager and VideoMapper to map the five sides of the cube, outputting six HD signals via Evision LED processors," says Harris. "As the content was running to timecode, playback was simple and straightforward."

In addition to the LED cube video content, the main Taiga server also fed content via PixelMapper and Art-Net data through a grandMA2 to a rig of Astera LED tubes and ARRI SkyPanels used to light the band with complementary colors, providing illumination consistent with the screen content. Mike Smith, managing director of Bryte Design, operated these, as well as moving lights, on the grandMA2.

"As the content was very fast moving and contained quick color changes and strobes, this was the ideal way to light the band effectively and synchronously," adds Harris. "Pixel-mapping the Astera tubes and SkyPanels was a last-minute request, but we had them up and running in no time."

While one Hippotizer Taiga server managed the content delivery, a second Taiga was used as a backup, and to process media files without slowing the main server. "We had content changes coming throughout the day, but having two Taiga servers to work with allowed us to get the content in quickly without sacrificing quality."

He adds, "This is where the Hippotizer really shined. We were able to meet every request in minimal time, which kept things moving and allowed the director and DoP to get the best out of every shot. It was the perfect tool for the job."