Christie MicroTiles provide heroic 256 square foot backdrop
A 256 square foot Christie MicroTiles wall, installed by Data Display Audio Visual, has provided the backdrop for the CNN Heroes awards ceremony in New York.
The wall consisted of four walls six MicroTiles wide by eight high, each with 1920 x 1080 content, stitched together to create one huge 12 foot by 21 foot wall, delivering 4K content capturing the evening's festivities and serving as a visual backdrop for photographs, graphics and videos for the live New York audience and millions of television viewers.
Mark Swanson, Data Display technology director, says CNN opted to use MicroTiles after experiencing issues with their set up during the last awards show.
"The main reason CNN used MicroTiles is that for the last awards show they used a five-by-five array of 60-inch LCD displays to create a video wall and apparently it was a big challenge to match things up properly so the installation was very tricky," Swanson says.
"This time they wanted something that would go together a little easier and look better to the TV viewer," he says.
"Once we got up there and tested it all, did the colour balance and showed them on camera, CNN liked it so much they went with the Christie MicroTiles," he adds.
The Hero Awards, which recognise everyday people who are changing the world, aren't the first time CNN has opted to use Christie MicroTiles, with the MicroTiles used at live broadcasts of the Democratic Party presidential debate and the Republican Party presidential debate, both held late last year.
Shawn Rockefeller, Data Display vice president, says the MicroTiles' 'limitless resolution capability' plays well for on-camera, large-scale video backdrops, because they are running everything at 1080 level.
"And MicroTiles' shallow depth helps with space issues because they're only taking up a foot or two of space on these sets," Rockefeller says.
CNN developed the content for the video wall with Data Display creating the four walls, and stitching them together.
Signal from CNN's production truck out in the street was also sent to Data Display.
