Alcorn McBride, a leading manufacturer of show control, audio and video equipment for the themed entertainment industry, has provided a Digital Binloop HD multi-channel video player for a 105-foot videowall spanning the lobby of the new Chicago headquarters of WMS Gaming Inc..
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WMS Gaming Inc. designs, manufactures and distributes electronic and digital gaming entertainment and gaming machines for the casino industry. The company’s new headquarters is part of new Technology Campus on the north side of Chicago. The campus will feature six new high-performance buildings, including the LEED Platinum HQ.
The new videowall consists of seven HD displays each of which is comprised of nine 60-inch Sharp monitors. The displays are separated from one another by about two feet of space. Mounted above the lobby’s wood-paneled walls just under the ceiling, the videowall measures nine feet high and stretches 105 feet across the lobby.
Sound Inc. were hired by Environmental Systems Designs to manage the audiovisual installation of the videowall. Sound Inc. used 7 channels of Alcorn McBride’s Digital Binloop HD to play the changing video content. The Digital Binloop HD provides up to 8 channels of HD video in a compact, economical and highly-reliable package designed for continuous daily use with no maintenance. Video clips are stored on CompactFlash media so there are no moving parts to wear out; each card can hold hours of media. The two-foot gap between each display is accounted for in the system’s raster.
Hank Schulz, Sales Engineer of Sound Inc. said, “With a videowall of that size the question is what to put on it. A friend of mine who shoots commercials and does product branding helped us put together some ideas. We have footage of the Chicago skyline shot by seven HD cameras; we compressed 18 hours of material to 40 minutes. We also have waves on Newport Beach and an animation of hot air balloons in a blue sky. We even have amazing HD footage from the Boston Aquarium that makes the videowall look like a 100-foot long fish tank.”
Schulz adds that Alcorn McBride’s Digital Binloop HD’s “reliability and performance has been good – it’s delivering video without any hiccups and working very well.”