Multiple screens, multiple ratios?

[luxcanor]

Hi,
I tried a search, but did not find anything overly helpful. Hopefully one of you can help out.

I have 16x9 side screens and a 28x9 center screen. Obviously majorly different aspect ratios. We are using TVOne scalers to handle the processing for these (including the edge blending on the center screen).

Major issue: we are constantly putting identical media across all screens (fortunately not IMAG, that is only on the side) but whenever we show videos on all three screens, I am really bothered by the stretched version in the center.

I am looking to try and solve this issue mainly with non-video media (read as powerpoint/lyric slides).

Does anyone know of a software package that will allow you to,using only one cue list, set outputs to different ratios.

I am hoping that the answer is not two separate computers running different content.


THANKS SO MUCH!!!

[zactommo]

I suppose the question is, what is the point of having a 28x9 center screen if you want to put 16x9 Media on it? What sort of things do you use the two different screens for?

[luxcanor]

Unfortunately the center 28' screen is an architectural feature and it is 12' above the deck, and there is no desire to change.

I presented the idea of adjusting the center screen to 16x9 during the latest set change but that was not a direction that people were interested in going.

It is not that I want to put 16x9 media on the center screen, I would like to put custom media on both without having to have multiple ops and computers....but I am thinking that is the only option.

So, we are stuck with what we have.

Currently powerpoint and worship lyrics are the only things on the center screen. But the same source is also displayed on the sides.

At the least, I am looking for a lyrics program that will output multiple screens with lyrics in different places (large and center for the middle screen with background media, and lower 1/3 for the side as DSK over IMAG)

[Chkurgrnd]

Have you thought of a Triple Head 2 Go for the middle scree? Or possibly check this thread out too...

I would LOVE to have a 28x9 screen! I would definitely find a way to make it work.

[Gracetech]

We just designed a new worship space with with a similar setup as yours and i ended up dropping the outer 16:9 screens and just going with the large extra wide screen on stage. Of course it's easy to do that before it's built.

In your case you have some options.

1. Stretch to fill- because there is very little difference in the aspect ratio you will only see very little distortion. This would be my last option to go to.

2. Pillar box- display the 16:9 content to full height and leave black columns on the side. Works but doesn't take full advantage of the screen.

3. Stretch to full- basically stretch the image in correct ratio till it touches the sides. This will ofcourse leave content getting cut off at the top and bottom. I usually shift the image displayed down so that only a 1/4 of what is getting cut off comes of the top and 3/4 comes off the bottom.

4. Special content- The route we are going is to create special content on the screen to the correct ratio and then do PiP for IMag, when we actually use IMag. As you said in your case this creates alot of work.

I'm sure you could be creative and come up with more options but these are the ones i've used over the years.

crt

[zactommo]

If your wanting to use only one computer/operator, then the only solution I can think of without delving into expensive & complex professional products would be to go with propresenter on a MacPro with the advanced, or alpha key module.

You could set the programs output resolution for DVI/VGA to be the resolution of your 28x9 screen, which feeds the center screen, and then set the advanced module or alpha key module to output to your 16:9 screens via SDI or FireWire (I'm assuming that your 16:9 screen a feed by a video switcher considering you mentioned Imag with DSK above)

This would give you the option of setting how the background & foreground media is scaled for your 16:9 screens. I would probably be choosing scale to fill for the background media, which means if your using ultrawide media, you will only see the center of the media on the 16:9 screens, then for foreground media (which is your lyrics) select scale to fit, which will mean the lyrics are downsized to fit the 16:9 frame.

The big flaw here is that as far as I can tell, you can't disable background media playing through the SDI output, which means it can't be keyed over your live video, but I don't actually have a blackmagic card, so maybe more setting appear if you do. Your best bet to know if this would work as you desire would be to call renewed vision, and talk through what you want to do. They'll soon tell you if it will work or not.

[prochlea]

What about doing ProVideoPlayer with multiple Network Nodes? I think you can do a different resolution on each screen... There's not a ton of info on it on Renewed Visions site, it just suggests you contact them.

[petereit]

Originally Posted by prochlea

What about doing ProVideoPlayer with multiple Network Nodes? I think you can do a different resolution on each screen... There's not a ton of info on it on Renewed Visions site, it just suggests you contact them.

That would require multiple Macs, something the original poster was trying to avoid.

But yeah, that would make it really easy! In fact, we have a VERY similar setup and are getting ready to do exactly that. We're already running our ultra-wide center screen off one ProPresenter system and the outer 16:9 screens off another. All we need is the advanced module so we can slave one to the other. (We currently just put both keyboards next to each other and our projectionist hits both arrow keys at the same time.)

I'm looking forward to adding a third ProPresenter system (probably a Mac Mini) so I can compose motion graphics that "flow" across all three screens independently. (I'm a huge Buckhead Church production groupie!!)

[tpichler]

StageSoft's "View" presentation software supports different resolutions for each output. All outputs are driven from a single script. Cues are added to the script and the output of the Cue can be any combination of the output screens.

www.stagesoft.com

(Full disclaimer: I am one of the authors)