Video Projection for a theatrical production

J

jefft99

Active member
I'm curious what the best way to project 3 different videos onto three screens with one computer for a theatrical production. Would anyone recommend layering 3 screens in FCP and exporting them as an extremely stretched quicktime file? Would this even work? If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
Video A Video B Video C
I scale down all videos to 25% in FCP
Place each scaled down video on the same parallel line next to each other (still in FCP)
Then greatly increase the width on a quicktime conversion to cover 3 projectors.

It is a sort of kooky way of doing it...if it can even be done this way....That said, how else would this be done?
 
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Are you talking about actually streaming 3 different projects from FCP and converting them through firewire or some other method and projecting them for an audience all at the same time? If so, that is not possible, It could be done with one project but it would not be the smart way to do it, because if you drop a frame your project will stop. Maybe I'm interrupting this wrong though.

LOL Nevermind thyat's not what you meant. I think I get it now, but I don't understand what the benefit of doing this would be. Could'nt you just have 3 different tapes playing to 3 projectors?
 
The problem with 3 different tapes or computers is things get out of sync...For example, in one scene, we need a body walking from right to left across the stage (starting on the right screen), going to the center (as they exit the right screen) and then going to the left screen as they exit the center screen.

The way I'm thinking, it would only be one project in FCP. I would composite the videos side by side...therefore, the final film would be ONE REAAALLLLY WIDE quicktime film, with 3 composited screens on that wide quicktime film..also, if this works, it's foolproof for the tech booth as all they need to do is press play and stop...

Is this feesable? It still doesn't sound like it would work...Any other ideas
 
Can you create a QT file that is 2160x480 with each video side by side for an ultra-wide screen? If so, you could extend your desktop in Windows to cover 3 monitors and then just play back full screen. This may not work, since I'm not sure you can play a single video on more than one monitor, even in a dual/triple display setup.
 
I think you may be forgetting one key element in your equation...

the projector---

I dont believe any projectors will display anything over 1280x1024---let alone a 2160x480

The only way I would recommend...(being as in a theater show if anything goes wrong your pretty much S.O.L til intermission or the next show) is 3 projectors, all linked to a different dvd player and run it off there individually.
As stand alone players- you can control the start and stop of each of the screen plays. In the world of acting/theater you really want to be able to control it if possible...

I m a TD for a large scale off broadway theater and I dont trust anything anymore, Ive seen pretty much any and all forms of equipment fail...so we try to simplify everything we do.... As long it works!
 
Hmm..The projector would only need to project 1/3rd of 2160 as 3 projectors would be acting as 1. With that each projector would project 3 reduced images or only 1/3rd of the full 2160... (again, if this is even possible)

Though DVD players might work, they still can get out of sync pretty easily...I.E. if one starts faster than the other...if the booth doesn't press them all at the same time...

Any other suggestions?
 
I assumed 3 projectors... one for each display output. I was trying to think of a way NOT to reduce your res by 1/3...
 
oh man... sorry, but you're going to have a hell of a time trying to make this work. Basically if you want to run it off a computer you need three independent graphic outputs - something rarely found on any computer let alone a mac. you need three outputs because you need three projectors.

the way this is usually done is through customized systems - synced dvd/dv/computer players that are set up speciffically for this purpose. I'm having a hard time seeing any easy way of doing this. All I can think of is if you somehow got a hold of three broadcast VTRs and set them up with the same ref so they would sync up. that way you could get all three projectors to display the right images at the right time.

your idea of making one qt movie and stretching it works in theory but not in reality. you simply can't force three projectors to do what you want them to and you don't have enough outs on your computer to serve all three projectors anyway.

I had a friend who set up an art installation with this type of system..... trying to remember how he did it - I think it involved several Linux computers linked together and a pile of custom software.

I'll see if I can dig up something smart tomorrow but I highly doubt it. best bet is the VTR sollution.

mor10
 
Probably the best you can do on a low-budget is to have 3 projectors with 3 identical DVD players. Stack them and use a single remote control. It should activate them all at the same time with a single click. Still no way to compensate for slight differences in spin-up, but that's one solution.
 
morten said:
oh man... sorry, but you're going to have a hell of a time trying to make this work. Basically if you want to run it off a computer you need three independent graphic outputs - something rarely found on any computer let alone a mac.
Click to expand...

Actually, macs excel at this sort of thing. You would need one of the models that has PCI slots, so you could add extra video cards.

morten said:
your idea of making one qt movie and stretching it works in theory but not in reality. you simply can't force three projectors to do what you want them to and you don't have enough outs on your computer to serve all three projectors anyway.
Click to expand...

For synchronized video, having separate systems driving the signal just won't work. The wide qt movie approach might work. However, you're likely to run into a problem getting software that will play it back properly across the three displays. Although most player applications have a "full screen" mode, I suspect they only use one screen for that mode.

I think someone mentioned specialized splitter boxes that are used to drive walls of screens. That might be the easiest and least error prone method. Resolution will suffer, of course, but that might not matter.

As for the projectors, you have to keep feeding them a signal or they'll tend to show a white screen with something like "searching for input" and "setting up display". You'll also have problems with the black level (LCD and DLP projectors actually throw a fair amount of light for "black" scenes; CRT projectors do not, but are heavy, expensive, and tend to lack brightness).

Finally, it is difficult to prevent stage lights from washing out projection screens. It can be done, but you have to arrange your entire lighting design carefully.
 
iain.bason said:
Actually, macs excel at this sort of thing. You would need one of the models that has PCI slots, so you could add extra video cards.
Click to expand...

no diff between Macs and PCs here (except that the Mac will cost you a lot more). You can easily get a gaming PC with 4 DVI-E outs if you want to. you can extend the desktop to cover all 4 screens and then run one as your control and the other three as separate video viewers. unfortunately I don't think this will fix your problem.

iain.bason said:
For synchronized video, having separate systems driving the signal just won't work.
Click to expand...

to the contrary that is the only way to do it properly. Take a look at this article and setup. ("Measuring in at a measly 27 x 15-ft, this projection system requires 20 networked PCs with multiple graphics cards just to process the 60 million pixel display.")

iain.bason said:
The wide qt movie approach might work. However, you're likely to run into a problem getting software that will play it back properly across the three displays. Although most player applications have a "full screen" mode, I suspect they only use one screen for that mode.
Click to expand...

if you use a PC you will be able to extend your video program over several screens. you will however run into one major problem: The video has to be very large which means it'll put an enormous load on the processors. if it's long it'll most likely start glitching pretty quickly.

I know this is bad news but I've been trying to do the same thing for a long time and I've found that unless you're willing to get a special system for it you are in big trouble. The best cheap sollution I've seen so far is actually the one suggested earlier in the thread with the three identical DVD players synced to one remote. if not I suggest you get some VTRs you can sync together.

mor10
 
morten said:
to the contrary that is the only way to do it properly. Take a look at this article and setup. ("Measuring in at a measly 27 x 15-ft, this projection system requires 20 networked PCs with multiple graphics cards just to process the 60 million pixel display.")
Click to expand...

We're talking about three projectors. If DVD resolution is adequate, and assuming 4:3 aspect ratio, that's 3 x 640 x 480 = 921,600 pixels. A single computer can easily drive that.

Of course, synchronizing multiple computers can also be done. It isn't an off-the-shelf solution, though.

morten said:
The best cheap sollution I've seen so far is actually the one suggested earlier in the thread with the three identical DVD players synced to one remote. if not I suggest you get some VTRs you can sync together.

mor10
Click to expand...

You're going to run into synchronization problems with the DVD solution. A smudge on one of the disks could make one of the players take several seconds to start playing.

Video tape doesn't have that problem, but is difficult to cue unless you are using expensive decks that are designed for editing.
 
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