Hippotizer Is Pixel Perfect For Data-Heavy 'Your Songs' TV special

British group Take That joined a host of German and international popstars who performed on the cherished 'Your Songs' TV show recently, each with their own large LED screen visual backdrop driven by Green Hippo Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers.

Billed as a celebration of popular music, Your Songs sees major German artists and globally famous singers deliver one of their most successful tracks, accompanied by a live orchestra and enveloped in visuals. The LED Main Wall measured 16m x 5m at 4096 x 1280 pixels, while an 8m x 2.5m LED ‘Talk Wall’ displayed secondary graphics. A series of 'gardenfence' LED strips surrounded the stage, pumping out 12300 x 1450 pixels of graphics.

The data-heavy visuals were designed by Saskia Olma of Lupixx, using Notch. "Every artist got the video content individually designed just for them," she said. "This year was the second time [broadcaster] MDR asked us to design the content and I wanted it to be unique and outstanding to match the songs and the stage. The visuals were all pre-made using Notch and then rendered out in timecode. We used two live Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 media servers and two more as backup and were impressed by the hardware and software stability, considering they had so much data to manage."

Enrico Walther served as Video Operator for Your Songs, using the Boreal+ MK2 which was operated using a grandMA3 console. “Using the Hippotizers, the results were smooth, fluid and very nice,” says Walther. “The Timecode is user-friendly, the server can be operated from the lighting console, and overall it’s reliability and rendering processing power when it came to the LED screens and strips was fantastic.

"In addition, this was the first time we tried out the NotchLC Codec the first time and for us it was a big time saver in terms of rendering. The fact that all visuals created in Notch could be played on the Hippotizers was great, and using the VideoMapper software to manipulate the visuals for the LED ‘gardenfence’ strips was simple."

This season of Your Songs featured Ronan Keating (of Boyzone fame), US singer Anastacia, and German singer Wincent Weiss, among many others. After each performance, the singers sat down to chat with the presenters about their song, what it means to them and it’s impact.

Credit: © Amy Haghebaert // LUPIXX