Smartphone controls show at Motorcycle Live
Multimedia Plus was asked to provide the audio, lighting, projection and control for the ‘Behind Bars’ Cinema at Motorcycle Live at the NEC.
Instead of providing a technician for the 7-day event, Guy Ferguson (Technical Director at Multimedia Plus) devised a way for the client to have full control of the all the systems with a simple hand held user interface.
Guy comments: “We built a secure, web-based control system, using a simplified control interface into a watchout display server that was run from a smartphone. The interface was repeated on a laptop backstage as a backup. As well as the system operating the sound and projection, the software also allowed us to automate all of the house lighting, through DMX and ArtNet.”
The simple smartphone display gave the client the options ‘Run Main Show’, ‘Other’ and ‘Emergency’. ‘Run Main Show’ triggered the following sequence of events:
- Walk in music starts
- Lights fade up
- After 3 minutes, advertisements run on-screen
- After 4 minutes lights dim, audio fades and main programme runs
- Lights fade up at end of programme
The ‘Emergency’ button was in case there was some sort of problem in the audience. Pressing it brought up another screen with some simple actions, allowing the client to pause the show, bring up the lights, reset or reboot.
Guy adds: “We also programmed a pre-timed standby of the system at the end of each day, so it was fully automated with very little input from the client required.”
The presentation ran multiple times a day throughout the week-long event. The Multimedia Plus team was only on site for the get in and the de-rig, resulting in a very smooth-running and cost-effective event.
