NEWS

 

 

June 2015 - Bastille European Festival Tour - With their continuing success, Indie band Bastille took a video package with them on their European festival tour - and production manager Joel Stanley asked Pixels Plus' Nev Bull to design and program their playback system. The band were not going to tour a video engineer, so the system had to run the show automatically, with timecode triggering any song in the set list, in any order. XL Video provided the hardware, and after two day's programming at Millenium Studios, the system was out for the summer.

 

 

April - May 2015 - Eurovision Song Contest - Vienna - Lighting Director Al Gurdon asked Pixels Plus' Nev Bull to design and manage the playback systems for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. ESC provided the Catalyst v5 PRO media servers which fed the LED screens and projection. Making use of timecode throughout the show, a stable playback system was required - Catalyst provided this platform to deal with the content for 40 countries' songs as well as opening and interval acts.

 

January - February 2015 - Queen & Adam Lambert - European Tour - One more jaunt around Europe and the UK for the Q&AL Tour - Pixels Plus' Nev Bull used an MA2 Light console to progam the video playback and video effects.

 

November 2014 - Peter Gabriel, SO Tour - The final leg of this anniversary tour took in Europe & the UK for the final leg of this project. Pixels Plus' Nev Bull once again programmed the video effects for the show, working alongside LD Rob Sinclair and Video Director Blue Leach

 

Sep 2014 - CATALYST V5 beta is here! - SAMSC software have released a beta test of Catalyst v5. Adding a comprehensive Video Exact Mapper and a host of other new features, V5beta is available from HERE. Password is "lenon". Any bugs should be reported HERE.

Features include:

36 layer and 40 mix for playback movies, images and input sources		Playback of up to 12 MPixel uncompressed 4:4:4:4 Quicktime® HD movies and images
Support 4 Outputs screens up to 4K Ultra HD outputs		General controllers
3D object UV texture map		Exact mix map
Text generator		Real-time rendering, pre- and endcompositing, crossfades, transitions
Keystone, edge blend, curve screen		Support e.g. ArtNet, DMX, Midi, MSC, MMC, MTC, SMPTE, OSC, RS 232, HTML,...
External and/or internal synchronisation		Fx-builder for freely configureable and cascadable effects
Gamma correction, chroma keying, 3d-objects		20 live video inputs up to 4 K Ultra HD
Integrated media control system		Pixelmapping for DMX/ArtNet LED installations up to 256 DMX universes

Upgrade pricing and any other information is available from sales@pixelsplus.co.uk

 

	V5 PRO	V5 DV	V5 XP	V5 LITE
Outputs	4	2	2	2
Layers	36	8	4	2
Mixes	40	8	4	2
Video Inputs	20	20	20	20
DMX Output Universes	10	4	4	4

	June 2014 - Queen & Adam Lambert World Tour - Following the success of their appearance at the iHeart Radio Festival in Las Vegas in 2013, Queen and Adam Lambert decided to put a world tour together. With Rob Sinclair on board as Lighting Designer, Pixels Plus was asked to provide video systems design and programmer for the tour. Requiring video playback and treated IMAG on a central 10m LED screen and IMAG projectors, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull proposed a Catalyst based media server system with Active Silicon Phoenix capture cards. The system takes a live camera cut and then colour treats it, adds framing, crops, and other video effects. This is all run from the Front Of House using an MA2 Light console. The tour has completed a US/Canada leg and currently in Asia and Australia.

 

April 2014 - Peter Gabriel - SO Tour, Europe - Back out again for a four week trip around Europe with Peter Gabriel and the SO tour.

 

April 2014 - Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, New York - When Peter Gabriel was asked to perform after his induction to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, he wanted to add some of his own style to the show's video screens. To add some of the live tour's visual style and still fit in with the TV show's constraints, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull put together a system including a Spyder X20 and Macbook PRO based Catalyst system.

February 2014 - Sony Stand, MWC Barcelona - Providing an archway of twenty 50" Plasma screens to make an impressive entrance to their hospitality area, Sony turned to CT London who provided a Watchout system programmed by Pixels Plus' Nev Bull.

February 2014 - Beijing Opera, London - In celebration of the Year of the Horse the Little Plum Blossom Opera Troupe, First Primary School, Zhongguancun, Beijing performed the story of “Pinocchio”at the Mermaid Theatre in Puddle Dock. XL Video provided a ground support LED screen to playback the video backdrops played back from a Catalyst media server programmed by Pixels Plus' Nev Bull

 

February 2014 - ICE, London - Working with XL Video's Jacqueline Rice, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull provided Catalyst programming services for the Aristocrat stand at this year's gaming exhibition. Running six banner screens and a central 19 x 3.6m main screen, the content was provided by Pixel Kid's Paddy Cannon.

 

January 2014 - Boom Chicago, Amsterdam - This exciting and very funny comedy club based in Amsterdam have upgraded the audio visual systems in their permanent home - a converted cinema. XL Video's Ed Cooper asked Pixels Plus to assist with moving the existing show onto a new VDMX based system.

December 2013 - Nobel Peace Prize Concert, Oslo - Back for a third year, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull travelled to the Spektrum in Oslo to work with Al Gurdon and Alex Passmore on this year's Nobel Peace Prize Concert. This year Pixels Plus provided all of the content for the show as well programming the MA2 Lite console controlling the 3 Catalyst media servers feeding the projectors and LED elements.

 

 

 

October - November 2013 - Queen Extravaganza UK Tour - Jumping straight off of the Peter Gabriel Tour, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull joined QUEX's first UK tour. Having programmed the show in the US in January, QUEX's tour manager Juliette Slater asked Nev to look after the video for the tour. Working in small club venues did not allow show designer Rob Sinclair to use a traditional approach to video with projection or LED screens. Instead, he designed a show with seven 42" plasma screens arranged in a portrait layout at the back of the stage. The content was re-mapped to fit the seven screens, and show reprogrammed to take live cameras across the whole canvas or individual screens.

 

 

September - October 2013 - Peter Gabriel's Back To Front Tour Europe - Another journey out with Peter Gabriel and the band, playing 18 gigs around Europe. Pixels Plus' Nev Bull was asked to repeat his role from the US as Chief Technology Officer, providing real time video effects as well as IMAG and LED feeds. This 'no pre-prepared content' show was recorded over two nights at London's O2, with Hamish Hamilton directing the shoot using new Sony 4K cameras. Nev Bull worked closely with Done & Dusted to integrate the existing show into the record.

 

September 2013 - Queen, I Heart Radio Festival, Las Vegas - Brian May and Roger Taylor were joined by Adam Lambert to perform at this years' festival. Video backgrounds were supplied by Triple Geek's Stef Goodchild and Pixels Plus' Nev Bull - all under the watchful eye of designer Rob Sinclair. Feeding the large LED screens via three Catalyst media servers, Nev Bull used an MA2 Lite console to playback the footage as well as taking MIDI signals from the keyboard player to trigger cues in We Will Rock You.

 

September 2013 - Proms In The Park & Radio 2 Festival In A Day - Pixels Plus provided a programmer to CT London to work with their Catalyst system feeding the main onstage screen. The first day finshed with a live link up to the Royal Albert Hall, while the second day's line up included Simple Minds, Texas and The Manic Street Preachers. Jessie J's production arrived with timecoded video from her festival tour, which was hurridly integrated into the system, working flawlessly on the night!

August 2013 - Cropredy Festival - Providing a new service the year, Pixels Plus installed a Text To Screen system, allowing festival go-ers to Tweet, Text and email messages and pictures to the LED screen. The system handled over 3000 messages over the weekend.

 

June - August 2013 - Intel Look Inside Tour - Working with Creative Video's Jamie Baker and John Montague, this worldwide tour of Intel's Look Inside tour took Pixels Plus' Nev Bull to the far corners of the earth! From Chicago to Beijing and Sao Paulo to Tokyo, this travelling showcase used video walls and Hippotisers to show off the latest Intel powered Ultrabooks. With hourly presentations and computer giveaways, the tour gave the public the chance to get hands on.

June - Man Of Steel Premiere, Leicester Square - Another nice day spent in the park, this time for the new Superman movie premiere.

May 2013 - Biffy Clyro, Radio One Big Weekend - Working with Biffy's LD Richard Larkum, Nev Bull configured the Catalyst system to suit the festival's screens, and then travelled to London Derry to ensure the show went smoothly.

April 2013 - Phoenix, Shepherd's Bush Empire - Phoenix played their first UK gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire, but the crew would not arrive until a couple of hours before the show started. XL Video asked Nev Bull to step in to set up the Hippotiser system ready for the crew's arrival.

April 2013 - Iron Man Premiere, Leicester Square - Spending a nice day in London's Leicester Square, Pixels Plus provided programming services for the Iron Man 3 Premiere.

March 2013 - Justin & Friends UK Tour - Back for a second year, Nev Bull programmed and operated the Catalyst system using the MA2 Control Wing for the Justin & Friends tour.

 

March 2013 - Heineken Meeting, Singapore - Working with CT London, this project added some spectacle to the presentations at the annual Heineken Meeting. Using a Watchout system, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull programmed the sequences for the two day meeting session in Singapore.

	February 2013 - QTel Rebrand, Barcelona - During the busy Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, QTEL wanted to launch their new brand Ooredoo with a lavish presentation. The relaunch show was seen by invited guests and beamed live via satellite Qatar TV. Blitz Communications asked Nev Bull to program the playback systems for the show, with preprogramming at Jack Morton's London offices.

January 2013 - Morrisons Meeting, Manchester - Providing programming services for the second year running, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull worked closely with XL Video's Phil Smith to run IMAG screens and presentation graphics for the after dinner entertainment.

January 2013 - Shell Power Nitro Launch, Telford - Working in secret alongside the main Shell annual meeting, this multimedia product launch was programmed by Pixels Plus' Nev Bull. Brought on board by JMDSG's John Montague, working with TRO Group, Nev programmed the multiserver system, outputting video to 16 projectors covering 5 giant cubes suspended from the ceiling.

January 2013 - Queen Extravaganza, USA - Queen's official tribute band formed by Roger Taylor and Brian May set off around the US with this new tour. As the tour will not have a dedicted video crew, Show Designer Rob Sinclair asked Pixels Plus' Nev Bull to make the show fully automated and integrate MIDI and timecode triggers into the system. This allows the Musical Director to run the show from MIDI foot pedals, as well as cues triggered from timecode. With the Queen tribute band playing alongside the video of the real band for Bohemian Rhapsody, frame accurate lip sync was essential. Pixels Plus also manufactured and supplied the custom MIDI triggers for the tour.

 

 

	December 2012 - Nobel Peace Prize Concert, Oslo - Returning for a second year, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull was asked to provide content and program the Catalyst media servers for this prestigious evening. Working closely with LD Nick Collier and lighting programmer Alex Passmore, Nev generated content for the three projection areas and LED fixtures across the three stages.

November - December 2012 - Viva Forever - Piccadilly Theatre, London Lighting Director Howard Harrison asked Pixels Plus' Nev Bull to come in and program the video for the new musical featuring the songs of the Spice Girls. Working alongside lighting programmer Jonathan Rouse, Nev used the MA2 wing to link to the main show console, allowing both to program at the same time. The two cue lists were then linked and are run by the show's crew. The two Catalyst media servers on the show output to over 30 Plasma screens, 28 LED stars and an LED tube sign.

 

September - October 2012 - Peter Gabriel's Back To Front Tour USA - To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the release of the SO album, Peter Gabriel decided to tour the US with the original tour line up. Designer Rob Sinclair asked Pixels Plus's Nev Bull to come on board as Catalyst programmer and 'Chief Technology Officer'.

		With a brief of 'no pre-rendered content', Sinclair worked with a team of software developers to create images rendered live which reactived to live audio inputs. Also, Kinect cameras were used to render 3D images in real time. Nev Bull 'glued' all of these elements together using Catalyst media servers and Active Silicon Phoenix capture cards.
		Award Winning Multi Camera Video Director Blue Leach fed the numerous cameras and wireless cameras through a standard PPU, and the Catalyst then fed the side screens and on stage LED screens. Leach was also given control of the MA2 consoles using MIDI triggers, allowing him to cut cameras and add strobe effects at will during the show.

 

August - Cropredy Festival 2012 - With Fairport Convention celebrating their 45th Anniversay, Cropredy 2012 was a special festival this year - so festival organiser Gareth Williams called on Pixels Plus's Nev Bull. Co-ordinating the sourcing and setup of the HD seven camera package to not only feed the IMAG screens, but also provide footage for the Sky Arts 90 minute special. Using CT London to supply the Barco Olite screen and Kahuna PPU, the three day festival went without a hitch!

 

July 2012 - London Olympics Opening Ceremony - Working with CT London, system design, configuration and support of the 20 Catalyst media servers used on the opening ceremony was provided by Pixels Plus's Nev Bull. Projection onto an inflatable house structure called for 20 Panasonic 20K projectors fed from brand new Catalyst media servers supplied by CT London. Nev Bull worked with CT's Anthony 'Bez' Bezencon to specify the equipement and was on site to configure the media servers. Using the new Video Mapper feature to be released shortly, the supplied content was mapped out to all projectors from one source movie file.

Source: Getty Images Europe

The project was supported bt Samsc Design's Richard Bleasdale who provided additional features to the Catalyst software to help with effect distribution and the complicated timecode adjustments needed for the show.

The media servers were all configured to be dual bootable into OSX or Windows to allow them to be used as AI media servers for the closing ceremony.

 

July 2012 - Peter Gabriel, Hop Farm Festival - This time with the role of Video Director, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull lead the video team to headline at Peter Gabriel's only UK date in 2012.

 

 

 

May 2012 - SUM, Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre - A slight departure from the norm, a new opera piece, with projection designed by Lorna Heavey. Working with Stage Sound Services, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull programmed the show using Catalyst's built in Presets and Cuelists, all being triggered over Midi Show Control from the lighting console.

 

 

 

 

 

April - May 2012 - Peter Gabriel, New Blood - Germany - Another jaunt with Peter Gabriel and the Orchestra, this time around Germany, with a final concert in Poland. Another outing for the MA2 Wing, now proving itself a great addition to the Pixels Plus inventory.

 

 

March - April 2012 - CBEEBIES Live Tour, UK - The first outing for Pixels Plus's new MA2 Command Wing! Working with XL Video, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull took the wing on it's maiden voyage around the UK on this arena tour featuring stars of BBC kids television. XL supplied the LED screen and Catalyst media servers.

 

February 2012 - This Is Lionel Richie, London Studios -The design of this show called for 26 columns of LED at various heights and widths, allowing the use of Catalyst's new Exact Mapper Feature. Having the ability to map exact areas with pixel accuracy from a piece of source content made the setup of this show very easy!

 

 

January 2012 - Absent Friends, London - A nice start to 2012, creating content for the revival of the Alan Ayckbourn play in London's West End. Providing some bespoke clock content projected onto the 'show cloth' . The content showed the time of day in which the play was set, and ran throughout the evening. The projection was shown several times during the play to depict the passing of time, stopping in the interval!

 

December 2011 - Nobel Peace Prize Concert, Oslo - Pixels Plus' Nev Bull went over to a chilly Oslo with LD Nick Collier and lighting programmer Alex Passmore to add some sparkle to this year's concert. Each year, in celebration of the Nobel Peace Prize winners, the Norwegian's stage a concert, featuring artists chosen that year's winners.

 

 

November 2011 - Peter Gabriel, New Blood - South America - Off again with Peter Gabriel and the Orchestra, covering Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Working closely with Blue Leach and Rob Sinclair, the show continues to evolve and change every night!

 

November 2011 - Theatre By The Lake, Keswick - Pixels Plus were very pleased to help the Theatre By The Lake add video projection to their main house. Providing Catalyst software and helping them to specify the hardware required, Pixels Plus then sent Nev Bull to train the theatre technicians to program and run the system. The first show to use the Catalyst was The Firework Maker's Daughter.

 

 

 

October 2011 - Wella, New York - Working in a very cold Pier 94 in New York, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull worked with XL Video and Basic Monkey's James Cooksey to provide feeds to plasmas, LED screens, plasmas, catwalks and more plasmas for Wella's annual Trends show. With numerous areas all showing the next year's hair colour trends, and an auditorium area for the main catwalk show, everything had to run like clockwork from a central control area. Six Catalyst media servers were controlled by Cooksey's Jands Vista console, all feeding the numerous screens and LED panels.

 

 

September 2011 - Phantom Of The Opera 25th Anniversary Concert - Rehearsing at London's LH2 studio, then moving on the the Royal Albert Hall - the 25th Anniversary concert used both projection and LED panels to bring the staging alive.

XL Video provided the Catalyst media servers, LED screens and projectors for the project. Content was designed by Jon Driscoll. Pixels Plus provided configuration and technical support during production and during the shows.

 

 

September 2011 - Got To Dance - Sky One - Working with Creative Technology, Pixels Plus provided the programming for the regional heats of this year's Got To Dance competition. CT's Catalyst media server fed both the LED screen behind the judges and the Star set pieces on stage.

 

 

July - August 2011 - Cropredy Festival - Recomissioned for a fifth year, Pixels Plus provided a complete video package for Fairport Convention's annual festival near Banbury. Drawing on the resources of Creative Technology, Nev Bull put together a seven camera package, feeding an onstage LED screen and providing the footage for 3 x 90 minute Sky Arts programmes. Fairport's Dave Pegg comissioned Pixels Plus to create content for their 3 hour set on the Saturday night - a 33 song marathon. Custom images created using 3D modelling as well as time lapse and live cameras were shown behind the band.

 

 

July 2011 - Human League - Pixels Plus was asked to provide another stand alone touring solution, this time for The Human League. Wanting to tour their own video playback system, the band's tour manager asked PP's Nev Bull to come up with a solution. Using MIDI over Ethernet, the band's sound engineer sends a MIDI note to trigger a preset, Go and fade preset on the Catalyst machines. The media servers used are were a pair of Mac Mini media servers, with SSD drives installed - running Catalyst Lite. Both servers run in parallel, with change over to backup switching provided - all in a 4u case.

 

 

 

June 2011 - Peter Gabriel, USA - After the sucess of the European tour in 2010, Peter Gabriel decide to tour the US on a three week, 14 date tour. Pixels Plus' Nev Bull was asked again to tech, program and operate the Catalyst media servers on the tour. Starting on the East coast in Berkeley CA, the tour went across the States, ending up in Milwaukee.

 

 

 

May 2011 - Pet Shop Boys - A nice little project to provide and program a Catalyst system for the Pet Shop Boy's as the supported Take That on their recent tour. A 'timecode in - video out' box was created with a pair of Mac Mini's running Catalyst Lite - both machines taking SMPTE timecode in from the Protools setup, triggering cues in a cuelist. Video out was then fed to the 'house system'. The unit had to be stand alone and run by 'non video' crew. The system also ran some VersaTile panels, triggering a C1 controller over DMX using some very novel pixelmapping!

 

 

May 2011 - BBC Radio One Big Weekend - a weekend stretched into ten days with this project for XL Video. Collating content for all of the main stage bands and programming the Catalyst media servers used to feed the LED screen. The up to Carlisle for the weekend to run the media servers for the duration of the festival.

 

 

April 2011 - Burberry, Beijing - with a rig of 58 projectors, and over 800 movie clips feeding them using a Watchout system - Burberry relaunched their stores in Beijing. The result was spectacular. With content coming in from multiple providers, Nev Bull went over there as content manager, working closely with Jack Banks as over-all project manager. With projections onto the front of the venue and virtual catwalk models, the show was an amazing spectacle. The results can be seen by clicking here. We also managed to get a stroll on the Great Wall!

 

 

 

 

March 2011 - Gorbachev's Birthday - Royal Albert Hall - Another event for Al Gurdon at Incadescent Design, this gala night was a mixture of awards and performances, with Shirley Bassey and Brian Ferry to name a couple of the acts.

 

 

March 2011 - Peter Gabriel 3D Shoot, Hammersmith - Following the success of the New Blood tour in the autumn, Peter Gabriel comissioned a 3D video shoot of the show, and Pixels Plus' Nev Bull was asked to mix the live show cameras. Peter's usual video director had stepped up a dimension to head up the 3D world. Taking on the challenge laid down by Blue, Nev cut the cameras, performed strange video effects with sand, perspex, marker pens and cling film - as well as looking after the Catalyst media servers for LD Rob Sinclair!

 

 

March 2011 - Duran Duran, London Studios - A range of screen sizes, types and resolutions was a challenge in this one off special for Al Gurdon of Incandescent Design. Custom content was provided by Fractured Pictures, under the watchful eye of Ian Reith.

 

 

December 2010 - February 2011 - Wizard Of Oz, London Palladium - Nev Bull was chosen by Stage Sound Services in Cardiff to configure, install and train the theatre staff on the video system. A total of six Catalyst media servers feeding eleven projectors was installed in the substage of the London Palladium, with live camera inputs and bespoke content from projection designer Jon Driscoll. Controlled by the house lighting console, a reliable and easy to maintain system was called for - and the trouble free production period proved this to be the case! (Despite five of the six media servers being stolen over Christmas!)

 

 

November 2010 - Pfizer Partnership Days, Tenerife - Pixels Plus' Nev Bull worked closely with John Montague from jmDSG, supporting a 13.5m widescreen presentation with multiple camera and powerpoint inputs. Several presentations spread over a week pushed the Hippotizer HD media server hard, with over sixty timelines created by John, giving a flexible and varied show for the client. Multiple camera records were taken for a show DVD and feeds provided for translators and presenters.

 

 

October 2010 - MOBO Awards, Liverpool - Catalyst PRO was supplied to PRG again for this year's MOBO awards held in Liverpool. Pixels Plus' Nev Bull created the content used as the main logo for the show.

 

 

September - October 2010 - Peter Gabriel European Tour - Working closely with award winning video director Blue Leach, Pixels Plus' Nev Bull took a Catalyst PRO system loaded with two LFG4 capture cards on tour around Europe with Peter Gabriel's Scratch My Back tour. With eight inputs fed from the video mixer, the Catalyst, controlled from a Hog3 IPC console, fed an IMAG projector either side of the stage. With unique techniques, Blue Leach adds manual video effects to the camera content, using bowls of sand, cling film and food dye to name a few.

 

 

September 2010 - ENRON The Tour - Following it's success in the West End, ENRON is setting off on a national tour. Starting out in the Chichester Festival Theatre, the show is being prepared to fit in a number of venues around the country. Pixels Plus's Nev Bull worked with equipment supplier Stage Sound Services to consolidate the projection equipment down to a single 10k Panasonic projector for the main tower, opposed to the pair of blended 6k's. Triggered from the sound desk using MSC, a single Catalyst PRO media server runs the video and sound for the show. Video designer Jon Driscoll joined the team to check the show before the tour started.

 

August 2010 - Cropredy Music Festival - Working with Fairport Convention for the fourth year, Pixels Plus provided a 6 camera with HD PPU this year, as the festival was being featured in Sky Arts Festival series. Providing a HD TX and ISO record to the broadcaster enabled a very quick edit turnaround, with content recorded from the whole weekend. CT London again, worked closely with Pixels Plus' Nev Bull and festival director Gareth Williams.

 

July - Aug 2010: Tea In The Park, Global Gathering & Creamfields Festivals - Working with Inchmere Design and XL Video, Nev Bull provided Catalyst programming and content for the mobile display unit. Fitted with Lighthouse LED panels and a Catalyst PRO media server, this unit runs for the duration of the festival, displaying custom content, legally approved within cigarette advertising guidelines.

 

 

July 2010: Tea In The Park Festival - Richie Hawtin's 'Plastikman' project integrates sound, lighting and interactive video - this video is wrapped around the performer in a 7m semi-circular screen. Working with EL Stealth LED screen, Pixels Plus's Nev Bull lead the CT crew for a short turnaround to install the screen in 4 hours.

 

 

July 2010: Prisoner Of Second Avenue, Vaudeville Theatre, London - Reviving this 1970's comedy, video newscasts were created by video director Jon Driscoll, and played back using Catalyst media servers programmed by Pixels Plus' Nev Bull. A short production period and limited showcrew made it imperitive that the show ran smoothly when triggered via MSC by the stage manager. With three projectors and media server system from Stage Sound Services in Cardiff - the MIDI control was sent with audio cues from Cuelab.

 

 

June 2010: "Opera Shots" Royal Opera House, London - The Royal Opera House comissioned three new operatic works, to be performed in the Linbury Studio Theatre. The third piece "Ingerland", by Jocelyn Pook, had a video background created by Dragan Aleksic and programmed and operated by Pixels Plus' Nev Bull. With three projectors and a Watchout system supplied by Creative Technology London, the video showing footage of life on and off of the football terraces.

 

 

March - May 2010: Eurovision Song Contest, Oslo - Following the success of Eurovision 2009, Lighting Designer Al Gurdon asked his video team from Moscow to join him in Oslo for the 2010 contest. With a very different concept this year, and no videowalls anywhere to be seen, the media server system had to deal more with DMX rather than video. Using over 2500 ColorBlocks, Al Gurdon created an ultra low resolution back wall and 'spines' radiating out into the arena. Pixels Plus' Nev Bull worked closely with Catalyst Programmer Ian Reith, looking after the Catalyst media servers used to pixel map the DMX fixtures.

 

 

February 2010: Love Never Dies, Adelphi Theatre - Three Hippotizer HD media servers controlled using Zookeeper PRO machines were used to produce the stunning opening sequence from Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest musical 'Love Never Dies' in London. Jon Driscoll and his team of animators recreated 1950's Coney Island from scratch, and using the multiple outputs of the media servers, six projectors and a DL3 moving projector, brought the start of the show to life. The programmer gluing all of these systems together was Pixels Plus's Nev Bull, and using a combination of Hippotizer timelines and a Pharos LPC1, worked alongside Jon Driscoll to produce the breathtaking sequences.

 

 

January 2010: Enron, The Noel Coward Theatre - Video designer Jon Driscoll asked Pixels Plus' Nev Bull to come on board as Design Associate for Enron - The Play, currently in the Noel Coward theatre in London. Having been the programmer for the show in Chichester and the Royal Court, Nev knows the show inside out. With equipment supplied from Stage Sound Services in Cardiff, the show was installed in a day and the ten day production went very smoothly - with the show receiving excellent reviews on press night.

 

 

November 2009: Samsung Corby Launch, Korea - Working along side Basic Monkey's James Cooksey, Jack Moreton Productions and XL Video's Tim Riley, systems management of this prestigeous product launch was handled by Nev Bull. Working with Barco HD 18K projectors, and creating two canvases of 18x3m, 4352x720 pixels using just two Catalyst media servers, the Samsung Corby mobile phone was launched. With the addition of multiple HDSDI feeds of interactive content, each media server had to output six layers, with sections of Apple Intermediate Codec content being luma keyed using a trial effects. The enabled performance to be kept to the maximum whilst having the flexibilty of transparent layers.

The projectors were focused onto a 'Musion' screen on either side of the stage, giving the illusion of images appearing around the performers, with the interactive elements allowing the presenters to 'move' content around the screens.

 

 

May 2009: Eurovision Song Contest - Pixels Plus' Nev Bull put together the system design and oversaw the content management for this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

With four weeks of pre-programming, and five weeks on site in Moscow - this year's Eurovision was a massive video project. With eight distinct areas of screen to feed, each song had at least eight full length movies to be played back frame accurate to match the timecoded music.

 

 

January 2009: Tudur Owen Show - Stage Sound Services provided the projection and media server for this new weekly Welsh speaking chat show, recorded in the Galleri in Caernarfon. Pix+ provided the programmer and content maker to provide video backgrounds for the up to the minute comedy news section of the show.

 

 

December 2008: Frankie Boyle & Jimmy Carr - Pixels Plus were pleased to be asked by Adlib Audio to work with them on a series of live shows at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. Setting up cameras, projectors and PPU, then mixing live camera feeds and computer video for the two comedians.

 

 

August 2008: Cropredy Music Festival - Fairport Convention have once again used Pix+ as the video project managers for their Cropredy Festival. Using an Olite screen and multiple cameras provided by CT London, the festival audience were given, for the first time, a close view of performances throughout the weekend. Headlining bands Supergrass, The Levellers and of course Fairport provided custom content for their sets, the Fairports using content created and operated by Pix+'s Nev Bull.

 

 

 

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