SDVoE Powers Dual-Sport Projection System at Capital One Arena
Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. is home to both the NHL’s Washington Capitals and the NBA’s Washington Wizards. It’s also regularly used for large-scale live music events. “With an arena renovation coming up, our goal was to enhance the fan experience,” explains Hunter Lochmann, senior vice president, marketing & brand strategy, Monumental Sports & Equipment. “And we have always had the projection system at the top of our list.”
Challenge
Monumental Sports needed a multi-sport projection system to accommodate both professional ice hockey and basketball games, with 4K content and projection mapping capabilities. The installation also had to support the requirements of large concerts. A turnkey solution that included everything from projection hardware to content processing and high-impact visuals was desired.
Quince Imaging, an innovative experiential display and design firm located in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., got the job. They specialize in live event video production, creative content development, and permanent display system design and installation.
“While most teams decide to work on this stuff in their off-season planning, Monumental Sports decided that with the Capitals being so red hot in the 2018 season, that now was the time to bite off a projection system,” shares Eric Gazzillo, producer, Quince Imaging. “Since it’s not really possible to stop mid-season to install a permanent system, we decided on an immediate temporary install for the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, and a more permanent install in the off-season.”
Solution
Quince Imaging created a turnkey solution with several Christie® products. With an incredibly tight timeline – just a couple of weeks’ notice – and only one day on-site for installation, Quince knew they could count on Christie. “This is where Christie products really shine,” says Gazzillo.
For projection, Quince chose 12 Christie Boxer® 4K projectors – with an incredible combined 360,000 lumens of brightness – and installed them double-stacked in two 3×2 arrays. Christie Mystique Install – Pro-Venue Edition was used not only for camera-based projector alignment but to help ensure a smooth workflow – warping, blending and aligning content across all 12 projectors in a matter of minutes. For multi-sport show control, Quince chose Christie Pandoras Box with Widget Designer.
For the permanent installation, Quince chose a Christie Terra™ controller and transmitters and receivers so they can transmit 4K without compression or compromise.
Built on standardized SDVoE technology, Christie Terra provides unprecedented performance capabilities including the delivery of uncompressed, zero-frame latency, artifact-free video, including 4K@60Hz video formats, over readily available and affordable 10G components.
Comprising an expanding line-up of transmitters, receivers, processing and control hardware and software, Christie Terra solutions include everything required to design and integrate complete SDVoE systems for applications that demand the ultimate performance and quality. Terra allows for the design of simple, flexible and highly-scalable system architectures that offer improved performance and user experience over current approaches, at a drastically lower total cost of ownership.
“We’re using Christie Terra [and SDVoE] to make sure that we’re running uncompressed 4K all the way through.”
– Eric Gazzillo, Quince Imaging
“Talk about a multi-sport set-up. When you go from hockey to basketball, where the ice rink is 4 times the size of the basketball court, you’ll lose a lot of resolution if you just crop your content down to one quarter of the size,” Gazzillo explains. “So to avoid that, we’re running all of the Christie Boxer projectors at their native 4K resolution. And to do that, we’re using Christie Terra to make sure that we’re running uncompressed 4K all the way through. That way, when we shrink down to the much smaller basketball court surface, we’re still getting full 4K resolution on the court thanks to Terra.”
The customer and fans alike are thrilled with the exciting new capabilities built into the projection system. It’s very flexible and easy to operate, creating immersive, multi-screen shows with cool features like player tracking, fan tracking, even “follow-the-Zamboni”.
“It’s been so great, we not only have the pleasure of the new projection system, but the Washington Capitals winning the 2018 Stanley Cup!” enthused Gazzillo. And adding to that excitement is our pre-game show that’s really memorable for not only the fans but the team as well.”
“It’s a little bit of competition for us at Quince Imaging, too,” laughs Gazzillo. “Rink and court projection has been picking up for so long. It’s so mainstream now that if you’re watching playoffs, you’re seeing projection mapping. So you don’t just have team rivalry, but also rival pre-game shows!”
About Christie
Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc. is a global visual and audio technologies company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ushio Inc., Japan (JP:6925). Consistently setting the standards by being the first to market some of the world’s most advanced projectors, complete system displays, and cinema audio solutions; Christie is recognized as one of the most innovative visual technology companies in the world. From retail displays to Hollywood, mission critical command centers to classrooms and training simulators, Christie display solutions and projectors capture the attention of audiences around the world with dynamic and stunning images, accompanied by awe-inspiring sound.
For more information about Christie’s Terra line of
SDVoE solutions, visit www.christiedigital.com.
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