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NEWS
LAS VEGAS — It’s not easy to compete for visual attention
on the Las Vegas Strip, but Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino,
which re-branded the resort formerly known as the Aladdin,
upped the visual ante by working with Panasonic Systems
Integration. The resulting LED large screen displays set the
tone for the resort as a whole, backed up by numerous Panasonic
projection systems, plasma and LCD displays within the
100,000 square-foot resort complex.
The resort’s exterior is hard to miss with its array of multidirectional
digital signage. It includes a curved LED large
screen system that’s over 57 feet high and a 180-foot-high
pylon with back-to-back LED boards measuring 40 feet by 30
feet. Two additional curved LEDs are also found on the face of
PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS
Planet Hollywood Casino Ups the Visual Ante
The 57-foot-high curved LED screen on the exterior is joined by ribbon
LED panels that run the 600-foot length of the building.
the casino, along with a curved ribbon LED display that runs
approximately 600 feet — the full length of the building.
Keith Hanak, group director, Panasonic Systems Integration,
said the design and installation of the indoor and outdoor
digital signage system and network involved a team of
Panasonic and Planet Hollywood staff working together with
local contractors and other specialists.
“This was a massive deployment of digital signage technologies
that was on the fast track to meet the scheduled
opening,” he said. “An additional challenge to the installation
process was the fact that we had to implement the design
while Planet Hollywood remained open, all without impacting
any of the Casino’s security, shows or events.”
Under its new management, Planet Hollywood Resort &
Casino was opened in November 2007, with some attractions
and venues phased in later over a period of several months.
Video is consistently used to heighten the resort’s Hollywood
celebrity motif. It also extends the visibility of the resort’s red
carpet events to areas far from the red carpet itself.
The casino area of Planet Hollywood is outfitted with
about 200 Panasonic plasma displays, complemented by
a variety of other Panasonic display technologies. Several
of the slot machines are also equipped with Panasonic LCD
displays that provide information on specific slots, and vertically
mounted Panasonic plasma displays are found at the end
caps and in multiple arrays on surrounding walls and facades.
Ceiling-mounted projectors from Panasonic also display dynamic
graphics on the walls.
LONDON — With the help from an array
of LED video panels, the Foo Fighters played
before 230,000 fans with just three performances
in the U.K. The band had been on
tour for six months, then played before Wembley
Stadium’s 86,000-capacity audience for
two dates, with a third sell-out show in Manchester
added to the group’s busy schedule.
Production Designer Nathan Wilson
took on the challenge of simultaneously
designing, programming and building
the two separate stadium shows while still
handling the touring version nightly, and a
joint effort between XL Touring Video Los
Angeles, XL Touring Video London and XL
Video Belgium helped with the fabrication,
LED and labor requirements.
The Wembley shows used over 5,000
individual Barco MiTrix panels divided up
into three different screen configurations.
A circular screen above the stage had 3000
of the MiTrix panels, and above that, a roof
surround screen had 300 more. In addition,
750 MiTrix panels were configured into four
zipper screens to add to the 360° visuals.
The City of Manchester show used 648
MiTrix and 60 Lighthouse R16s on a rotating
stage. The Lighthouse R16s were divided
into two side screens. The MiTrix panels
were split into three LED screens
“We are blessed to have a band, management,
design, and production team that gets
it,” said XLTV’s John Wiseman. “They think big
and act bigger. This is the kind of client and
Located in the center of the three-acre casino floor is the
Heart Bar, which has 32 of Panasonic’s 65-inch plasma displays.
Arranged in two video walls, each with 16 plasmas, these multiscreen
displays feature sporting events and hotel promotions.
In the front lobby, 15 Panasonic plasma displays deliver
promotional programming, including six interactive kiosks
with touch screen technology to highlight hotel amenities
and provide directions. Once guests find their way to hotel
elevators, they can see ceiling-mounted Panasonic plasma
displays, which also feature promotional messaging.
Hanak noted the Panasonic system behind the scenes that
drives the entire design. “Our NMstage content management
software is an advanced system that lets Planet Hollywood’s
management schedule and deliver targeted messages in real
time,” he said. “Using this technology, we were able to create
the kind of video-centric environment that owner of Planet
Hollywood, Robert Earl, wanted.”
NMstage content management software provides all of
the HD video feeds and scheduling of all of the recorded
and/or live video over a 1GigE fiber backbone networked
system. At Planet Hollywood, Panasonic Systems Integration
designed and installed a central server and 90 media players
that store and play the video content throughout the resort.
The central server also monitors all system components to
keep glitches to a minimum.
“It was Mr. Earl’s vision to use video to reinforce the Hollywood
theme, and Panasonic’s digital signage technologies
have allowed that vision to become a reality,” said Hanak.
Video Panels Give Foo Fighters Visual Assist
LED video helped 86,000 fans in Wembley Stadium see the band.
team guys like me dream about working for.”
Mark Ward, Phil Mercer and Jo Beirne
handled overall video project management
for stadium shows on behalf of XLTV. Rob
McShane also played a role, touring on behalf
of XLTV Los Angeles.
The technical crew also included Rodney
Johnson, production manager, Brian
Kountz, stage manager and Clair Van Herck,
production coordinator. The road manager
was Gus Brandt.
Splinter Films filmed the Wembley Stadium
shows for an upcoming cinema and DVD
release produced by Emer Patten and directed
by Nick Wickham. The executive producers
were John Cutcliffe and John Silva, with
management by S.A.M.
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HD Projection Adds to
Alicia Keys Tour Visuals
continued from page 55
VYV Corporation, a staging-dressing
company based in Montreal, created the
technical design and video elements of
the set. Emric Epstein, co-founder and
technology developer for VYV and lead
technical designer of the set, said the projected
images were able to “compete in
brightness with LED screens but with better
resolution and quality. The projectors
deliver a super bright and extremely clear
image with no rainbow effect, which is
crucial for live performances. They really
add another dimension to the show.”
Emric added that “because the show is
moving very fast with a lot of back-to-back
performances on the road, quick set-up,
alignment and blending of the projectors
is essential.” The Christie projectors, he said,
“are easy to use and set up with our Photon
systems and software that automatically
blends the triple stacked projectors and also
manages all of the content for the show.
With Christie’s latest remote control Road-
Tools software, we have even more flexibility
to do things like shutter the lenses and even
write our own applications to control the
projectors using ChristieNET protocol.”
56 PLSN SEPTEMBER 2008