Two Key Technologies to Take Your LED Video Wall to a New Level
Post-pandemic, corporations are putting a stronger emphasis on events to excite employees and attract new customers. Today, U.S. companies spend an estimated $122 billion on event marketing annually, with 80% of marketers saying that live events are critical to their company’s success and 61% considering them their most important marketing tool. Combined with a massive return to in-person events as the pandemic wanes, the question of how to attract and impress attendees has taken on critical importance.
Bottom line? Today’s event planners need ways to wow their audience from the moment they step foot into an event – what we call the “opening experience.” And doing so requires incorporating new event technologies into your planning. In today’s blog, we’ll explain two new technologies that are helping event planners truly take their events to the next level, along with tips on getting prepared.
Create a 3D “video wall” experience with disguise technology
Picture an attendee walking into the hotel ballroom for the opening speech. What will their first impression be? Creating a jaw-dropping moment requires drawing this attendee into a fully immersive experience, which means offering content via LED video screens. While you can leverage LED screens in a ballroom to introduce a topic or showcase talent, they can just as easily be a permanent feature in the reception lobby or networking lounge.
For a truly impressive experience that ups the “wow factor,” you’ll need a larger display than one screen can provide, requiring the ability to link multiple screens together to create a large digital canvas. Moving from an LED screen, you have gone to an LED wall. But to make such an event video wall work, you must ensure your content seamlessly carries over from screen to screen. And that’s where disguise technology comes in.
disguise designs purpose-built hardware designed to "reimagine storytelling." In particular, its media servers allow you to marry up multiple video screens to play content seamlessly.
disguise offers purpose-built hardware designed, in its words, to “reimagine storytelling.” In particular, its media servers allow you to marry up multiple video screens to play that content seamlessly. In addition to facilitating the playback of large-scale content,
disguise’s media equipment has become the industry standard for high-end playback. Combine this with the company’s quality training and support services, and you have a product that every event planner should be taking a close look at.
Leverage virtual reality via Unreal technology
Imagine being a presenter at an event and being able to have absolutely anything behind you. That’s right: Unreal, you can bring your audience anywhere, right from their seats. Do you want to put your presenter on a Saturday Night Live set? The Unreal engine can make that happen. The Oval Office? Yep. The Montmartre District of Paris in the 1920s? No sweat.
Via traditional green screen technology, a presenter stands in front of a green screen upon which digital effects can later be added, post-production. But with the move to Unreal engines, the effects are already there, in real-time. And it’s not just a question of projecting a location on a screen: anyone can do that. The virtual reality sets created by the Unreal engine show depth and can evolve in tandem with the presentation, with elements that appear and disappear depending on the script, content, and media for a show.
Imagine being a presenter at an event and being able to have absolutely anything behind you. With the virtual reality production power of Unreal, you can bring your audience anywhere, right from your seats.
Unreal’s environments can be used in conjunction with any size, shape, and number of displays, including the event walls made possible by disguise, or wrap-around displays that can create an impressive, surround effect in a venue hall. This allows your event engineers to go outside the box with set design, try different things, and unleash their creativity. Talk about a “wow” experience.
Incorporating new tech requires extra planning
Of course, incorporating new event technology into your standard line-up can also present new challenges. If you’ve traditionally had an opening video, themes, and scripts, you have a head start. If not, this is an exciting way to get started. Don’t forget that mixed-reality technology will take a little longer to prepare than standard video, especially if effects need to be coordinated with the timing of speakers or other talent. Planning, and building in time for extra rehearsals, is key.
Its important to get out in front of the curve of groundbreaking technology - reaping the benefits of innovation - instead of having to play catch-up later.
Since immersive content must be approached differently, your approval or pre-approval process also may need to be modified. If you’re nervous about integrating new tech, a prudent approach is to create and approve your event video production as if it were for the small screen, before adding the extra step of building it out for the LED wall. Thus, your existing processes can be respected while opening new opportunities.
Complex, immersive technologies like disguise and Unreal represent the future of events. Companies that hope to differentiate their events from the competition will get out in front of the curve of such groundbreaking technology, reaping the benefits of innovation instead of having to play catch-up later. Partnering with an experienced event team is the easiest and most effective way to do it. At Stagedge, we help you determine how to make immersive technology work best for you, creating the content for your experience or guiding you every step of the way as you create your own. For more information on our immersive and creative services, visit www.stagedge.com
Check out this timelapse video and see how Stagedge leveraged disguise's technology to "reimagine storytelling" for ADI at GTC23!