AberNStein
Member
i'm doing tech for a school production of macbeth, and the director wants a 'tv wall' as well as two projected screens on stage.
i've pretty much figured out what i want to do, but i found this forum and thought i may as well post my plan and see if anyone has any suggestions.
so, to get one image split up into ten pieces for the pyramid of tvs she wants, i'm going really lo-fi, and am going to point cameras at different parts of one tv. we're using little security cameras, which won't turn off when idle, and will be easy to attach to some sort of frame. we're gonna use rg6 coaxial cable with f-type to rca adapters on the ends to get the video from the booth to sidestage, where the tv-and-video-cameras contraption will be.
(got the idea from http://maybevideodoes.de/sites/mosaic.html and we've tested it out on a small scale. the scan lines look really cool and the refresh rate wasn't an issue.)
to project onto a screen at the back of the stage, we're going to mount a projector on the proscenium bar, using a projector mount made for mounting on trusses. again, coaxial with rca ends to get the video from the booth to the projector.
the other projector is to be rear-projected. i've never done it, but apparently wax paper works well for a screen. the guys making the set pieces and the pyramid to hold the tvs are making the screen and all that.
i'm going to be making my own video matrix, because i want to be able to output video from any of three dvd players to any of the three screens (treating the tv wall as a single screen). to make the video matrix i'll be using one three-way video splitter, one rca y-adapter, and three three-way input selectors (leaving one input blank).
with that setup, i'll be able to have one image on each screen, the same image on all screens, or any combination of two on one and one on the other.
i.e.
111
121
123
211
113
the only thing i haven't figured out yet is how to send a blank signal to the projectors, so that they won't go to a 'no input' message or something. i think i heard once that you can send audio into the video input and it will just give a blank image. is this true? is there a better way to send a dummy blank signal?
any suggestions anyone has would be great
thanks
p.s. we're pretty settled on the cameras-and-tv method for the video wall. everything else was too expensive (though we were close to using a linux cluster; big tvs are easier to find than computer monitors).
i've pretty much figured out what i want to do, but i found this forum and thought i may as well post my plan and see if anyone has any suggestions.
so, to get one image split up into ten pieces for the pyramid of tvs she wants, i'm going really lo-fi, and am going to point cameras at different parts of one tv. we're using little security cameras, which won't turn off when idle, and will be easy to attach to some sort of frame. we're gonna use rg6 coaxial cable with f-type to rca adapters on the ends to get the video from the booth to sidestage, where the tv-and-video-cameras contraption will be.
(got the idea from http://maybevideodoes.de/sites/mosaic.html and we've tested it out on a small scale. the scan lines look really cool and the refresh rate wasn't an issue.)
to project onto a screen at the back of the stage, we're going to mount a projector on the proscenium bar, using a projector mount made for mounting on trusses. again, coaxial with rca ends to get the video from the booth to the projector.
the other projector is to be rear-projected. i've never done it, but apparently wax paper works well for a screen. the guys making the set pieces and the pyramid to hold the tvs are making the screen and all that.
i'm going to be making my own video matrix, because i want to be able to output video from any of three dvd players to any of the three screens (treating the tv wall as a single screen). to make the video matrix i'll be using one three-way video splitter, one rca y-adapter, and three three-way input selectors (leaving one input blank).
with that setup, i'll be able to have one image on each screen, the same image on all screens, or any combination of two on one and one on the other.
i.e.
111
121
123
211
113
the only thing i haven't figured out yet is how to send a blank signal to the projectors, so that they won't go to a 'no input' message or something. i think i heard once that you can send audio into the video input and it will just give a blank image. is this true? is there a better way to send a dummy blank signal?
any suggestions anyone has would be great
thanks
p.s. we're pretty settled on the cameras-and-tv method for the video wall. everything else was too expensive (though we were close to using a linux cluster; big tvs are easier to find than computer monitors).