Jay Productions and Events, founded in 2008 and based out of Padstow, NSW, are lighting, vision, sound, staging, and operations specialists, covering AV for the corporate market, activations, and special events. With unique tech and looks at the forefront of their offering to their clients, Jay Productions were finding themselves serving up ever more complex media to a bigger variety of LED panels and fixtures. Putting out the feelers on which media server would best service their needs, Green Hippo’s Hippotizer Karst was their peer’s server of choice, and Jay Productions have made two their own.
“We are increasingly incorporating complex lighting with mapping to LED screens, and projection mapping,” relates Jason Ghazal, the owner of Jay Productions. “We needed a media server that is versatile and easy to use. We got advice from everybody we knew that does specialised work with media servers, and they all agreed that that Green Hippo was the best.”
Jason and the team plumped for two Karsts fitted with the DVI and DP output card option, incorporating Green Hippo’s PixelMapper, SHAPE 3D projection mapping tool set, and Hippotizer V4’s multipurpose pre-visualisation tool into a 2RU, road-ready case. The advice from his colleagues has been borne out by Jason’s experience; “I’ve found mapping screens really easy,” he confirms. “The workflow is great, and it integrates beautifully with our MA Lighting grandMA. We’ve been running shows with integrated lighting all controlled by time-code triggers, and the Karsts have been rock-solid.”
Utilising both custom-made content and the Karsts’ included library, Jay Production’s Hippotizers have already been out on some high-profile gigs, including American Express’s activation at the Overseas Passenger Terminal for Vivid. “That was running our Martin Sceptron rig and our content,” explains Jay. “We’ve also been doing custom maps on circular LED screens, and lots of other unconventional screens and shapes. When we are on the gig and find that the measurements of the rig on stage don’t match the original info, changing the canvas size on the fly in Hippotizer is easy, which is a huge relief.”
Green Hippos range of media servers and video tools are distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Lexair. “Lexair have always given us quick turnaround on purchases, good products, and great support,” concludes Jay.
