M2 Events Group Relies On FOR-A Live Production System

M2 Events Group, a live corporate event producer, went all in with its FOR-A live production system for two recent, high-profile events.

Based on the systems' ease of use and ability to optimise large screen image magnification and signal distribution, M2 Events Group used its new FOR-A system for live sessions at the auto industry's NADA 2022 Show in Las Vegas and for high-level leadership meetings for a national insurance company.

For both events M2 Events Group was the sole producer and production company, handling management, audio, video, and lighting from start to finish. M2 deployed FOR-A’s HVS-1200 switcher and FA-9600 signal processor to send the camera signals to screen management systems to build image magnification picture-in-pictures (IMAG PIPS) for the events’ large LED canvases. The MFR-1000 routing switcher served as the signal distribution hub, sending camera signals to multiple multi-viewers backstage for prompter, directors, and producers.

"One of the great things about FOR-A switchers is how easy they are to use, how intuitive the web GUI is, how intuitive the buttons and the menu on the physical switcher controller are," said Ken Sorrell, National Accounts Manager, Music Matters Productions. "It's easy for any Director to start, with even a basic knowledge of video switchers in general, and they can at least find their way around and make a show work pretty quickly."

The FOR-A technology's 12G support is a big plus for M2 as they start to work with larger and larger displays. "Creating larger canvas sizes means scaling infrastructure related to media and file transfer," explained Nauman Lalani, Director of Special Projects, M2 Events Group. "The ability to use 12G-SDI is a plus as we move towards even larger canvas sizes, and we need to push 4K signals to all of our screen management devices,” Lalani continued. “Also, being able to create presets was beneficial so we could prepare PIPS and two-shots that were ready on the click of a button. This made the execution of the show much easier."

In the end, it comes down to reliability, said Lalani: "The gear used in these large corporate environments just needs to work. We can’t be fussing around with defective gear on-site, or SDI ports that are loose, or a power supply not working. So just the reliability of the FOR-A gear is a huge win."

The compact 3RU form factor FOR-A HVS-1200 switcher is very portable, making it the ideal choice for mobile production and events. Ten 12G-SDI inputs come as standard, plus one or two M/E switching in 4K UHD and HD mode, respectively. The MFR-1000 4K routing switcher accomplishes 4K and 8K routing with 12G-SDI compatibility across all inputs and outputs. The FA-9600 signal processor provides HDR and wide colour gamut support. It offers exceptional conversion format delivery, including 12G, 4K UHD, 1080p and HD/SD-SDI.

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