Broadcast News

Bookmark and Share
22/02/2010

Obscura Lights Hard Rock Cafe's Rock Wall

News Image
Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas has developed a new way for visitors to interact with signature rock’n’roll memorabilia collection: a massive 5.5m wide, 1.20m high, super-HD, multi-user, multi-touch, fully interactive video wall.
Just in time for the 2010 NAB expo, Joe Tenczar, Hard Rock Cafe Technology Director, turned to Obscura Digital, the successful San Francisco based company known for creating amazing visual display projects.
Based on their expertise in designing large power walls, Obscura Digital’s development team knew that they needed the latest in graphics technology to create the unique customer experience that the Hard Rock Cafe was looking for. Consequently, they turned to NVIDIA, whose multi-GPU visual computing system supported by PNY Technologies – the NVIDIA Quadro Plex 2200 D2 – was perfect for the job.
The challenges for Obscura were numerous. For instance, the now famous Rock Wall had to provide a simultaneously useable form factor for up to six visitors. It was a huge task to seamlessly blend a single application over the 5,50m wide touch wall at such a high resolution. According to Patrick Connolly, Chief Executive Officer of Obscura Digital, "There were over 1,000 items of memorabilia, each averaging eight mega pixels in size – a staggering amount of data! We had to ensure that the display was highly interactive, fluid and flawless, with absolutely no stutters. With 8GB of onboard memory, the Quadro Plex 2200 D2 allowed us to cache massive amounts of data, making the video wall completely interactive. No other product on the market today could have made the wall work like the Quadro Plex did."
The hardware is driven by Obscura’s proprietary software, Fire Frames, which was developed to take advantage of the Quadro Plex GPUs. "We needed low latency and intense processing power to deliver the real-time vibrant graphics required and the Quadro Plex 2200 D2 delivers exactly that," commented Niklas Lundback, Chief Technology Officer for Obscura Digital.
Obscura also used the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800 graphics card by PNY to run the graphics-accelerated tracking capabilities of the Rock Wall. Over one hundred tracking points can be monitored at one time which allows visitors to touch and drag any image, select and open up windows, play videos and zoom in on items of interest. "With an image resolution of up to 16 mega pixels, it’s the next best thing to actually holding the actual item in your hand," commented Mr. Connolly.
Since it was created, the Hard Rock Cafe Rock Wall has received worldwide acclaim. "It was a huge success and everyone is really excited about it. Microsoft picked up on it and a smaller version of the Rock Wall was one of the featured projects that Steve Ballmer demonstrated at the Windows 7 launch," continued Mr. Connolly.
Laurent Chapoulaud, Marketing Manager EMEA at PNY Technologies, concluded: "Obscura is always pushing the boundaries of visualisation technology. They are one of the very first companies to take advantage of the multi-GPU capabilities of the Quadro Plex 2200 D2, and the resulting Rock Wall is an amazing visualisation experience unlike any other."
Visit: www.obscuradigital.com/work/detail/rock-wall to access a clip of the wall in use.
(BMcN/BMcC)
Solidmate Ltd Memory Card Hire London

Top Related Stories
Click here for the latest broadcast news stories.

18/04/2023
Brompton Technology To Demonstrate TrueLight® At NAB 2023
Brompton Technology is set to make history at the highly anticipated NAB Show in Las Vegas by demonstrating its game-changing innovation, TrueLight®,
16/03/2023
Imagine To Demonstrate Technology Innovations At NAB 2023
Imagine Communications is to demonstrate its latest technology innovations, business-driving thought leadership and strong industry partnerships at NA
15/03/2023
Caton Technology Partners With Osprey Video
Caton Technology has teamed up with Osprey Video to provide an integrated encoder and decoder which connects direct to IP circuits using Caton Transpo
10/07/2023
Brompton Technology Helps Cyans LED Virtual Studio Transform Taiwan'sTV And Film Production Industry
Harvatek, a Taiwanese supplier of LEDs, has partnered with an experienced local equipment distributor to establish a joint subsidiary called Cyans Vis
30/06/2023
Cobalt Iron Patents Proactive Technology
Cobalt Iron Inc. has announced that it has received a patent on its proactive technology for automated remediation of cyber and storage events. U.S. P
23/06/2023
OSA International Appoints Technology Specialist
OSA International has hired Tim Wiley to join the company as Technology Specialist. With over two decades of experience in the broadcast and AV sector
23/06/2023
d&b audiotechnik Announces Technology Integration Partnership With SSL
d&b audiotechnik has announced a technology integration partnership with Solid State Logic (SSL) to integrate the d&b Soundscape immersive sound syste
11/04/2023
InSync Technology Extends Relationship With FOR-A
InSync Technology has extended its relationship with FOR-A in delivering an 8k version of its motion compensated frame rate converter. The new applian
06/04/2023
SMPTE Opens Call For Papers For 2023 Media Technology Summit
SMPTE® has announced it is seeking technical papers for the SMPTE 2023 Media Technology Summit, Oct. 16-19, at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, 1755 N Highl
03/04/2023
Martin Audio Partners With Belair Technology And The Bug Club
Martin Audio has teamed up with Belair Technology and The Bug Club to deliver the ultimate eco-friendly VW Pop-Up DJ Booth. Since 2013, The Bug Club h
31/03/2023
Rohde & Schwarz To Display Latest Transmitter Technology
Rohde & Schwarz is to show its latest transmitter technology at NAB2023 (booth N1949, Las Vegas Convention Center, 16 – 19 April). This will feature t
30/03/2023
MediaKind To Showcase Latest Technology And Solutions At NAB 2023
MediaKind (#W2100) will take the spotlight at the NAB Show 2023 (April 16-19) to showcase its latest broadcast and video streaming technology and solu
08/03/2024
Intinor To Demonstrate Functionality In Its Streaming Technology
Intinor is demonstrating the latest functionality in its widely-used streaming technology at NAB 2024 (booth SU5059, Las Vegas Convention Center, 14 –
06/03/2024
Dalet And Veritone Announce Technology Partnership
Dalet and Veritone have announced a technology partnership that integrates the Dalet Flex media workflow ecosystem with Veritone's AI-powered Digital
04/03/2024
d&b Group Opens New Immersive Technology Experience Centre
d&b group has opened a new immersive technology experience centre (ITEC), located at the world-renowned Science Museum in London, itself famed as a ce