XL Video: Super Screens
Your average computer screen is about a foot across, maybe two if you’re lucky. The screens at XL Video, however, are measured in metres, even stories. Your computer monitor probably has a few million pixels. XL Video’s most monstrous monitor has almost 13 million and could quite comfortably display a life-size image of an African elephant. The company is one of the world’s leading huge-format video purveyors, providing screens for concerts, conferences and festivals around the globe. They stock a few thousand square metres of LED screens and 250 or so high brightness video projectors. They have offices in France, Germany, the UK and the US. They’ve set up dazzling displays for Daft Punk, George Michael, The Who, Genesis, Depeche Mode and U2, to name a few. To drive all of those awe-inspiring screens, the company employs an infrastructure of Macs running Final Cut Pro and High End Systems Catalyst V4, a piece of performance software that fuses digital imagery with stage lighting control to create choreographed multimedia extravaganzas.
“We use Macs throughout the whole process, from concept drawings to content creation to final playback”, says Richard Burford, head of XL Video. “And Final Cut is the linking piece of the chain; it ties everything together just before play-out”.
Right on Cue
Artists like U2, Daft Punk and Depeche Mode pride themselves on their visual punch. They don’t just throw concerts, they create immersive environments for fans to fall into. Burford and the crew at XL Video do more than just rent out the gigantic screens that create those incredible worlds. They design and assemble the electronic infrastructure behind it all. “We work with the creative designers and directors to make their visions a reality”, says Burford. That means sketching out system plans, specifying screens and lighting gear and, increasingly, creating visual content.
Daft Punk wanted the most dazzling visuals they could get for their latest tour. XL Video provided a few eight-core Mac Pros running Catalyst v4 and Final Cut Pro. “They came to us with a pretty fixed idea of what they wanted”, says Burford. “They wanted to mix live video with effects. Using the eight-core Mac Pros, we were able to take in eight digital sources and treat them as video streams. Then they could use Catalyst to coordinate the video with lighting effects and add their own effects in on the fly. The final digital video streams ran to LED screens”.
XL Video used a similar approach with the last Depeche Mode tour, “Touring the Angel”. The group’s video production specialist melded live video streams with footage from previous tours, music videos and special effects reels. “Again, they used Catalyst running on Macs to control the video and lights”, says Burford. “It allowed them to have a really dynamic visual show that was different from venue to venue. And the Macs were at the centre of it”.
In Transit
Taking a few million dollars worth of computer equipment on tour is no easy task. “When we travel, all the equipment goes into flight cases, they’re rolled on and off of trucks and they get jostled around quite a bit”, says Burford. “And we use them in some inhospitable places. Reliability is key and the Macs deliver. We don’t even take spares with us because we don’t need to. The machines never fail and if they do, we can use Apple laptops as backups. MacBook Pros can run Final Cut and Catalyst, no problem. Everyone on our team carries their own Mac laptop and the artists we tour with almost always have their own as well”.
Getting the equipment to a venue is only half the battle. Once it’s there, you’ve got to set it all up and time is limited. “On a rock and roll tour, speed is of the essence”, says Burford. “You need everything to be up and running early in the morning, ready for rehearsals and any changes”. Tour techs set up the XL Video network for the visual effects specialists. And that’s when running a Mac network has real advantages. “You don’t need a PhD in computer science to set up a Mac network”, says Burford. “We can rapidly deploy networks of Macs with centralised storage anywhere, in a matter of minutes”.
Creating Content
Most of the content that ends up on XL Video screens is usually created by the artists beforehand. Some, however, is created on site, either right before or even during a show. To pull off this feat, the XL Video crew employs a network of Macs running Final Cut Pro, Motion, Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D. “We were in charge of the visuals for the Live Earth show and we generated them all on site at Wembley Stadium”, says Burford. “It was a lot of work because we didn’t know exactly what we were getting into until the day of the show”.
The bands who played at Live Earth met with the XL Video crew pre-show to plan their visual effects. Some had logos or other 2D graphics, some just had footage from previous shows or music videos. “It was up to our team to use standard tools like Final Cut Pro, Motion and After Effects to create the visuals right there”, says Burford. “Motion is a great tool for creating the textures for these shows. The real focus point is the band or the artist, so we create a lot of background moods and textures. Again, speed is critical because we need to get the effects ready before the show starts”.
To crank out those visuals on time, the XL Video team uses a network of Mac Pros. “We turn up with all these Mac Pros and the setup becomes the hub of all the content creation”, says Burford. “The graphics designers can build the network themselves without an IT guy. That’s a tremendous advantage. For more complicated shows we’ve actually taken an OS X server with us and without really thinking about it we’re sharing content between three or four different machines. Setting up a network is just transparent. You don’t need that much training. It tends to work for you the way you think it should”.
Home Base
Not all XL Video content creation happens on the road. The company’s 42,000 square-foot head office in London features two high-definition Mac editing suites. One belongs to the on-site staff of graphic designers and motion graphics specialists, the other is available for clients. “We’re getting more and more into content creation”, says Burford. “We started by dealing mainly with hardware, but tools like Final Cut, Motion and After Effects are so flexible and easy to use that we’re exploring the more creative side of our industry”.
Right now there are only a handful of full-time XL Video creatives, but the company plans to expand its content creation division. “With Apple, we have that flexibility”, says Burford. “Creative things just happen without us thinking about it very much. If we have something to achieve, we don’t have to spend too long looking for a solution within Apple products, they’re just there for you to use”.
