XL Video Provides Innovative Audiovisual Coverage at Cisco Live 2014 in Milan

The celebration of Cisco Live 2014, an event in which this multinational specialized in networks has recently brought together thousands of professionals from the ICT sector at the MiCo congress center in Milan (Italy), has counted on the supplier XL Video for the design, supply and support of audiovisual, projection and control solutions during the four days of duration.

XL Video has been responsible for the supply, design and support of a wide range of audiovisual solutions, including a 60 meter projection screen and large format LED displays; cameras / PPU and control equipment during the four days in which the multinational's annual event was held Cisco, called Live 2014, which took place at the MiCo congress center in the Italian city of Milan and in which it had the collaboration of event producers George P. Johnson.

For this project, the XL Video team, managed by Nick Askew and Steve Greetham, has collaborated closely with Ben Hawkins, Dave Johnstone and John Carss, from the George P. Johnson production company, to design the projection system for the plenary sessions held in the MiCo auditorium, with capacity for 3,100 people, and coordinate the equipment and logistics of audiovisual systems, screens, projection and control of 37 other areas available for this event.

To equip the auditorium, an impressive 60-meter total projection screen was used, divided into the left and right extremes and gently inclined towards the audience, leaving three presentation podiums in front for the Cisco Live 2014 speakers.

Ten HDF-W26 model projectors from the Belgian firm Barco were responsible for creating the image on this large screen, which were executed in five pairs (active and hot backup) from the control area of ​​the room, and whose edge was mixed together with the screen management system Encore to create a single image on the entire surface, which also controlled the live cameras and the screen output of a wide variety of formats (PowerPoint, Keynote, PlaybackPro, etc.).

live production

Media playback for the screen was performed with an XL Catalyst, driven by a grandMA2 light console, to flexibly program all video elements through the console and synchronize them with the playback of audio tracks, which was also fed by the Encore system.

The plenary sessions could be followed live thanks to five HD cameras Sony HXC-100 supplied by XL Video, which were distributed in two at the back of the auditorium equipped with x70 lenses; another pair on dollies in front of the stage, and a remote camera Bradley Cam-Ball 2. These systems were introduced in a Panasonic HS450 PPU to cut the mix, while Cisco TV provided a separate submix for Internet streaming via a Panasonic HS400 PPU.

The recording of the sessions was done in four AJA Ki Pros, which along with eight monitors were part of this system, with a Lightware MX-FR33R modular matrix with SDI and DVI-I/O and fiber systems Lightware.

Multi-device connection

To integrate a 'second screen' in the plenary sessions, XL Video contacted Matt Mapleston to create a system that communicated with the attendees' devices, connected to the WiFi network on the Cisco website, and that allowed the sending of messages, images, animations, videos, etc. to the thousands of devices connected during the event.

Delegates present in the plenary room or auditorium connected to Cisco WiFi that directed to a specific IP address through their web browser, and during the opening session, images sent by the devices were displayed on the main screen, automatically adapting to the resolution and orientation of the connected device (tablet, smartphone,...). This system was also used to display presentation slides on the same personal devices.

For the 37 informal meeting rooms reserved for Cisco Live 2014, XL Video supplied 36 Panasonic projectors (between 6 and 20K), which used the new Lightware HDBaseT DVI over CAT system, as well as DVI over CAT 37 powered by Cisco encoders, allowing attendees access to the presentation.

The rest rooms have been equipped with around twenty monitors, in formats from 47 to 90 inches, along with 80 comfort monitors, all of them on fifty Barco Image Pro II and ten Barco PDS-902 scalers.

XL Video was also responsible for the supply of a 11.5x3 meter LED screen from the manufacturer Roll call which has been used to welcome attendees to this event.