Videowall Visualization
Jun 1, 2012 2:54 PM
When you are an interactive marketing company tasked with producing content and managing the online presence for very large and well-know companies, it is imperative to keep you finger on the pulse of the Internet and broadcast news at all times. But how can you monitor multiple sites and stations without missing vital information? For Raidious, the answer is a state-of-the-art videowall that is at the heart of the company’s new digital command center in downtown Indianapolis.
“In the design stage, we envisioned our new office space as a 21st century digital newsroom built for content development and distribution, and real-time social media monitoring,” said Brian Wyrick, vice president of operations at Raidious. “The command center was to provide a well-thought-out workspace for our core employees and content correspondents – who often work from mobile locations – to collaborate. At the center of our vision was a videowall that would allow staff to easily monitor the Internet and broadcast television for content in real time. In addition, we wanted to do something unique with the space for the upcoming 2012 Super Bowl, which happens to be taking place at Lucas Oil Stadium.”
For the event, Raidious wanted their new office to serve as a social media command center for bloggers and other social media outlets reporting on the game, providing them with a comfortable space to work and monitor game-related content on the videowall. To make their vision a reality, Raidious called on Ovation, one of Indianapolis’ top sellers and integrators of A/V technology.
The New Digs
Dubbed Raidious Control, Raidious’ new office space is located right over the Hard Rock Café in a historic downtown Indianapolis building. Raidious Control offers 2,800 square feet and work space for up to 30 people, including three private interview suites, ten “touchdown” stations, a rich media production lab, and six workstations. Ovation began and completed the installation of the command center’s videowall in February, with Raidious staff receiving technical training in March. The videowall consists of nine 40in. Samsung HD monitors, with iPad/iPhone control over all monitor sources across the screens. For servicing, each individual monitor can be pulled out nine inches for convenient access.
With the videowall in place, Raidious can monitor up to nine different sources of information, in addition to their own production workflow. This allows the company to constantly check for news pertaining to their clients’ industries throughout the world, and quickly react with relevant content. Configuration possibilities for the wall are virtually endless. For example, three monitors can be used to monitor TV stations while the other six show various Internet sources. As needs change throughout the day, monitor sources can easily be switched to accommodate them, including using the videowall as a dashboard to monitor project timelines.
During the Super Bowl, Raidious Control will serve as a valuable resource for those reporting on the event in the blogosphere. With thousands of people accessing the Internet at Lucas Oil Stadium, a decent feed will be hard to find. Thanks to Raidious, bloggers will have a comfortable retreat to have a cup of coffee and get their work done efficiently and in peace, all while staying completely tuned in to the pulse of the event.
A Fickle Power Supply
As the videowall is vital to Raidious’ operations, it is imperative that it is up and running at all times during business hours. However, the location of Raidious Control actually poses some challenges when it comes to the power supplied to the monitors and wide range of equipment that go with them. Among other components, two full Sanus CV127 racks house a Wyrestorm MAT16x16 16 x 16 HDMI video matrix switcher, Control4 HC400 system controller, and Control4 16AMP3B 16-channel audio amplifier, all of which need to be protected from power abnormalities.
“February is a harsh time winter-wise in Indianapolis. As that’s when the Super Bowl will take place, the city is installing semi-covered and heated walkways to accommodate visitors for the game. To do this, however, they have to rip up roads, which actually creates power disruptions for buildings located nearby. In addition, Raidious Control itself is in an old historic building, which are prone to power problems due to their older electrical infrastructure,” said Duke Beam, general sales manager of Ovation.
“So it was clear that a high level of power protection was needed to ensure uninterrupted performance from the videowall and other components. And if there was a problem, Raidious management needed to know about it immediately. With these issues in mind, we specified a number of Furman solutions for the project, including two AC-215A compact power conditioners, an Elite-15i linear filtering AC power source, and most importantly for Raidious, the F1500-UPS featuring the BlueBOLT® power and energy management platform.”
The Solution
For Raidious Control, the F1500-UPS features Furman’s SMP/LiFT/EVS Technologies for professional-level protection from surges and spikes, and linear AC noise filtration for optimal A/V performance. The F1500-UPS is bolstered with 1500 VA of true sine wave battery backup, AVR voltage regulation, robust programmability options, IR control for safe shutdown of remote equipment, critical load management, and circuitry for optimized power consumption.
For Raidious, one of the more important features of the F1500-UPS is that it offers BlueBOLT hosted IP power control and energy monitoring via the BlueBOLT-CV1 interface card. This allows the company to control connected equipment remotely through Panamax/Furman’s hosted BlueBOLT servers from anywhere in the world. All that’s needed is an Internet connection and a computer or mobile device. BlueBOLT provides Raidious with remote outlet control for hard reboots of connected equipment; scheduled commands for power-up, power-down, or power-cycling of outlets; monitoring of incoming voltage in near-real time or over history; and email alerts from the offsite server when power anomalies occur.
“We chose the F1500-UPS for this project because it offers a high-end power supply while providing email notifications. Raidious management will know immediately if there has been a power disruption and if they need to power cycle their computers or Internet routers,” added Beam. “And this is something they can do very quickly remotely, or from an employee on site. Either way, they don’t have to wait for a service call to get the videowall up and running again.”
“There is nothing else on the market that offers the level of control you get with BlueBOLT. There are solutions that will monitor equipment and have relays to turn devices on and off, but they have to interface with a separate control system. BlueBOLT combines everything into one, and really is the perfect solution for Raidious.”
In the End
“Everybody at Raidious loves the new center and especially the videowall, which is heavily used each day and has become a central component of our operations. We held an open house on April 1 with a hundred or so of our closest friends, colleagues, clients, and partners, and the videowall was the center of attention. I have no doubt it will be a hit during the Super Bowl as well,” added Wyrick.
“And BlueBOLT has been great. Since our business is cloud-based and we are often mobile, it’s important to know if something is wrong with the wall and have the ability to demonstrate instant response. That is where the email notifications come in, to give us that piece of mind. So far, we have only received one. So the F1500-UPS is really an invisible part of the installation, but a crucial one that only speaks up when it needs to. We’ve been very happy with everything Ovation has done in our space and with their recommendation of Furman.”
