Description
The Millennium Dome, located on the bank of the Thames River in Greenwich, London, had stood deserted for a number of years when the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG, www.aegworldwide.com) decided to renovate and transform the forgotten attraction into the largest entertainment venue in Europe.
Challenge
AEG looked for the right tools to create high-impact, dynamic, and cutting-edge atmosphere using several screens in and around the arena. The requirements were simple: top quality playback devices, capable of supporting a wide range of resolutions, synchronizing video streams, and geometrically correcting presentations upon 360 degrees displays; the ability to capture live HD feeds from cameras and distribute it to designated screens; and the convenience of uploading, designing, managing and controlling all the displays and content from a central operation center (NOC). Other critical factors were the ability to create playlists, distribute them, and monitor the network performance at all times, as well as control lighting devices via DMX protocol, screens, and video matrices via serial ports. As a bonus, there was a requirement to distribute emergency and security related messages in real time, using a fast web access that could be operated by anyone with the access code.
The Solution
C-nario Messenger™ provided all of the features AEG was looking for, and more. Brought to the project by Philips Vidiwall, C-nario Multilayer™ player supported all resolutions, from 50 x 80 pixels to HD 1080p, and synchronized any number of content streams to any number, size, resolution, or arrangement of screens. C-nario provided full control over lighting devices, displays, matrices, and any other controllable device, and provides top quality content management and distribution tools as well.
The Success
Tom Mudd, the broadcast manager at the 02 Arena, described the C-nario Messenger™ as an example of what makes C-nario’s technology such a good fit for the venue. “The C-nario Calendar enables me to allocate targeted content to different displays at different parts of the day. It is a very precise and accurate tool, and it is very easy and intuitive to use because of the visual representation and graphic interface. Plus, its efficiency is a real time-saver.”
The Calendar scheduling tool of C-nario Messenger™ enabled the graphical scheduling of content items over a specific period of time by dragging and dropping them into a graphic calendar interface network, combining loop-type and explicitly scheduled items into a coherent playlist. This sophisticated and dynamic feature also used a smart scheduling engine to automatically create playlists based on factors such as even dispersion of content items and channel-specific behavior.
