MONTREAL—VuWall today unveiled its VuScape VS10 video wall controller, a compact and powerful unit designed for small- to medium-size video wall deployments.

Powering up to 16 displays, the VS10 controller can be used as a destination or to capture and manage hybrid AV, IP and IT sources, including web pages, RSS feeds and VND, allowing them to be encoded and distributed in an AV-over-IP infrastructure, the company said.

"As the use cases for video walls have exploded, we've responded in equal measure with a flexible and powerful video wall controller that solves the challenges these applications face," said VuWall CEO Paul Vander Plaets. "Whether it's a smaller deployment needing a robust, yet affordable video controller or a large deployment requiring scalability and redundancy, the VS10 is the perfect visualization solution."

The VS10 also can be used as a complete video wall processor. It features four 4K outputs, which allows it to be used as a KVM workstation. The VS10 can decode ADDERLink ipeps+, and it can perform VNC network capture, the company said.

It also can be integrated with Milestone and Genetec video management systems and decode IP cameras, websites and local applications. With its small form factor, the VS10 can be installed directly behind displays.

More information is available on the company’s website.

MONTREAL—ChyronHego has selected Matrox QuadHead2Go multimonitor controller for its Prime Video Wall integrated graphics authoring and video playout solution for broadcast video wall applications, Matrox has announced.

The combination enables studio set designers to create odd- and ultra-sized video walls of any size, shape or pixel count.

“The modern broadcast studio has changed, and video walls have played an integral role in that upgrade,” said Francesco Scartozzi, vice president of sales and business development at Matrox broadcast and media group. “Video walls provide the perfect canvas to deliver stunning graphics and video content to engage audiences like never before. It is now a critical part of the studio design and production process as it is about showcasing one’s brand.”

Prime Video Wall is a resolution-agnostic, real-time graphics application. It integrates seamlessly with QuadHead2Go multimonitor controllers to synchronize any number of pixels to multiple outputs.

By capturing a single 4K channel feed from the Prime Video Walls platform, QuadHead2Go instantly supports up to four standard and non-standard aspect ratio video monitors. Prime Video Wall sub-channel technology allows users to define custom-sized areas of a larger output channel and playout graphics to any position on any of the screens in any order, the company said.

“Video walls are the backdrop in studios but are often brought to the forefront if done properly,” said Olivier Cohen, senior vice president of marketing at ChyronHego. “Content producers are incorporating these large or uniquely-shaped display configurations to complement and enhance storylines ….”

Together the technologies offer “the simplest and most visually enriching experience possible,” said Cohen, adding that ChyronHego is “happy to recommend” the QuadHead2Go to its broadcast system integrators.

More information is available on the ChyronHego and Matrox websites.

Allentown, Pa., may be a small city, but local television broadcaster WFMZ had big ideas when incorporating cutting-edge AV into its recent studio redesign. Unlike most traditional broadcast sets, WFMZ required that its set have the ability to stretch graphics and video content across multiple displays — without compromising on image quality — during a live broadcast. To build the unique and sophisticated video wall system the WFMZ team had in mind, they called on set-designers Devlin Design Group and integration firm Advanced.

“Our job was to build an AV infrastructure that has no limitations on configuring content across a range of displays from multiple manufacturers,” Advanced executive vice president Mark McPherson said. “We built a video wall system that successfully allows WFMZ to work with an infinite number of display layouts while using a 4K signal. Now, WFMZ is not limited by signal bandwidth in any capacity.”

[Read: Newsrooms Benefiting from Graphic Advances]

Advanced was able to achieve WFMZ’s desired flexibility by building the entire video wall system around a VuWall VuScape video wall controller, which allows the production team to seamlessly configure how display signals are distributed. For the display portion of the integration, Advanced built a six by three video wall using NEC 55-inch Ultra Narrow Bezel S-IPS Video Wall Displays. The video wall is flanked by several smaller displays, including LCD monitors from Sharp and LG. Advanced chose Extron DTP Transmitters and DTP Receivers to extend audio, video, and control.

“The most productive video walls offer simplicity and total flexibility with their content and this is where VuScape excels,” said Maryse Montagne, sales director for North America, VuWall. “Essentially, the video wall now becomes a single blank canvas that can display whatever sources the end user requires, in whatever size and orientation.”

“In order for the flexible content manipulation to work, all displays have to work in portrait or landscape mode,” McPherson commented. “The Advanced and Devlin Design Group technical teams designed the monitors so that they will toggle between the two modes on the fly — an element that is very unique to WFMZ’s broadcast studio.”

It was also imperative that production staff be able to easily configure the content across multiple displays. Conveniently, VuScape’s software includes a birds-eye layout representation of all of the monitors connected to the system. Producers can drag and drop content around to fit the best way across multiple screens. “This feature is an enormous benefit for producers responsible for distributing content on set,” McPherson commented. “It allows them to prepare the scenes before they go into production, which is unprecedented, and it enables them to test out how the image will appear before they go ahead with that configuration.”

According to Advanced vice president of engineering Kevin Linton, the most challenging aspect of the installation process involved the integration of several of the older technological components on set with the newer AV. Particularly, WFMZ wanted to control all presets and video wall layouts from its older, pre-existing production switch. For seamless control, Advanced had to integrate it with the Ross OverDrive system, a network-based control application.

“We had to draft a module to integrate their production switch with Ross and, in turn, control the video wall processor,” Linton commented. “Although it was a challenge, we were ultimately successful in making it work. This is the first time we were able to control the VuScape processor from a production switch.”

Ultimately, Advanced and Devlin Design Group were able to deliver on WFMZ’s request and, in doing so, built one of the most innovative video wall display systems in the broadcast industry. “The entire infrastructure is centered around distributing the highest quality graphics throughout the studio,” McPherson concluded. “We’re proud to provide WFMZ with cutting-edge video integration that is extremely innovative but is still hassle-free for staffers.”

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NEWARK, N.J.—WFMZ-TV is settling into its new studio in downtown Allentown, Pa., with the addition of nine Panasonic AW-HE130 mounted remote control cameras. Five of these pan/tilt/zoom cameras will be set up in the new downtown studio, while the other four will be used at the station’s main studio for newsroom standups, weather and boardwalk shots.

The AW-HE130 measure 7x9x9-inch and incorporates high-sensitivity, low-noise 1/2.86-inch 3-MOS imagers. Additional features include Power over Ethernet+, multistream transmission of H.264 HD video and audio, up to 1080/60p at 24 Mbps. The cameras are all mounted on the ceiling and can be remotely controlled through the station’s main studio.

The station also acquired Panasonic’s 55-inch TH-55LFV50LCD video wall, installed in a 4x4 configuration as a backdrop for its anchors. The LED backlit displays offer 800cd/m2 brightness and contrast for color reproduction. Features for the TH-LFV50 include a built-in cooling fan, a 5.3-mm bezel, and integrated software to manage content on each screen.

This new studio for WFMZ-TV was part of a redevelopment plan for the downtown Allentown area.