Interactive Media Exhibit Via Renewed Vision @John C. Maxwell Leadership Center

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

The John C. Maxwell Leadership Center in Atlanta honors the life and impact of the global and generational leadership of this internationally recognized leadership speaker, author and pastor.

Maxwell Center 6In celebration of his continuing legacy, visitors now can enjoy interactive audio-visual presentations of Maxwell’s life and achievements across an immersive video wall controllable from several user stations. The video and graphical content is driven by Renewed Vision’s ProVideoPlayer 2 (PVP2) software, bringing both reliability and quality to the cost-efficient playback infrastructure.

Velocity Productions, an Atlanta-based production and systems integration company, was tasked with building out the video wall on a curved wall, using a custom mounting system to cleanly integrate multiple 46” Barco monitors in a four-wide by three-tall configuration. The challenging integration project influenced the Velocity Productions team to evaluate technologies on the playback side that would not only deliver reliability and quality, but also bring balance to equipment and labor costs; and maintain operational simplicity moving forward.

Maxwell Center PVP2 w-iPad Station“We primarily selected PVP2 for its low cost and ease of use, ensuring long-term value and a quick return on investment,” says Brian Morrison, director of AV integration, Velocity Productions. “It’s affordable, and straightforward operationally. The layouts are appealing, and the playlists are easy to create and manage. Simply put, we wanted something that works well on a daily basis and provides the quality of other high-end playback systems on the market — without the expense. That said, PVP2 is enabling the center to achieve some very interesting applications.”

The PVP2 software resides on a Mac Pro at the core of the operation, delivering two display port signals to a DVI adapter to transport signals to the video wall. With the video wall arranged in the 4×3 configuration, Velocity Productions programmed the PVP2 software to split the wall into two, 2×3 sections, sending each a 1920×1080 image. The video monitors then break up the video signal across all monitors in each 2×3 section. Next to the video wall, visitors can trigger content using a Savant Systems six-button controller to drive the first level of interactivity.

RV PVP2 Maxwell CenterVelocity Productions also developed a custom Savant Systems iOS app to control the video wall content. PVP2 integrates with a Savant Systems controller to add a second interactive element to the experience for the staff. This allows staff to scroll through and recall any of eight educational videos produced exclusively for the John C. Maxwell Center from an iPad, iPhone or Apple laptop. The eight videos otherwise rotate across the video wall on a continuous basis, all built around John’s leadership reputation with each video dedicated to a specific time in his life.

“PVP2 really gave us the flexibility to align the layouts and content to the screens, which was not easy given the unusual video wall format,” says Morrison. “The software provides a level of adjustability without complexity. While there is a feature that allows us to add layers for a richer output, we’re outputting a simple setup of layers where we’re matching outputs to signals coming and out. But, we could make every single screen unique, and that ability to adjust moving forward is pertinent to its long-term value.

“Beyond that, the interoperability between PVP2 and Savant Systems was key in really taking the experience to a higher level. From an integration perspective, it was easy as bridging the two systems together over the network. Visitors to the center benefit the most, using our custom iOS app to watch and listen to presentations across several personal stations. In the future, we anticipate adding 4K content to the video wall, which PVP2 natively supports. We see many interesting opportunities with this installation moving forward.”


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