AV Stumpfl, Austrian award-winning creator of mobile and installation projection screens, multi-display and show control systems, has recently been approached to provide its expert-crafted PIXERA system for a regional festival.
Khareef, which means autumn in Arabic, heralds the start of the monsoon season in Oman’s Salalah region. While the rest of the region has scorching weather, Salalah experiences chilly rain and a heavy layer of mist, which creates stunning waterfalls and springs within the mountains.
Salalah’s Ministry of Tourism hosts the annual Khareef Festival between July and August to commemorate this picturesque and prominent season of the year, which includes traditional performances as well as kiosks offering Omani handicrafts and traditional food. Despite the fact that the traditional festival could not be held in its entirety due to Covid-19 restrictions, a variety of smaller recreational activities and events were held at tourist spots to commemorate the anniversary.
Monolithic spectacle
Lalindra Amarasekara led the team as show director, overseeing content design and creation for the show which ran three times daily for a month.
The Ministry of Tourism solicited the assistance of local event and production firm GT Stagetech to develop a multimedia spectacular that would serve as the event’s main attraction. They chose GT Stagetech’s large monolith structure for the display from numerous concepts presented to the client.
The 360-degree multimedia experience was created to resemble a diamond-shaped monolith, mapping content of colourful patterns and tessellating shapes on all angled sides.
The 16-minute display featured pre-programmed lighting, lasers, and additional effects that were all synced to an SMTPE timecode signal.
Used with great confidence
Because of their compact size, dependability, and performance, GT Stagetech’s managing director, Mohisn Al Hajri, and director of sales and rentals, Croyden Menezes, opted to purchase two AV Stumpfl media servers, PIXERA one and PIXERA two OCTO.
With both media server systems capable of driving uncompressed 4K, 60fps multimedia playback, the director/master server was a PIXERA one, and the display was a PIXERA two OCTO with two, four, or eight outputs.
“We did not have to switch to the backup once – it’s a system that we know we can deploy with great confidence,” says Amarasekara. “The 3D environment and visualisation inside the PIXERA suite is extremely powerful, giving the programmer the feeling of working in a physical environment. This helps the tech teams to pre-plan and accurately set up projectors or scenic elements.”
In addition to AV Stumpfl’s PIXERA servers, the setup comprised lighting from Avolite’s Sapphire Console, audio from JBL, Crown amplification, Soundcraft consoles, and RTI lasers.
“We are thrilled”
GT Stagetech received the PIXERA media servers for this installation from Dubai-based AV consultants and distributor VueAV, whose associate partner Matt Reed says: “It is a pleasure to have provided GT Stagetech with the right equipment for the job. Their knowledge and expertise speaks for itself when you see the monolith – it’s extremely impressive.”
Reed praises PIXERA for its ability to precisely render content inside the visualiser outputs with “perfect frame synchronisation” and considers the server’s overall user experience as second to none.
“The servers can handle it well when working with large canvases and content; we can deploy these systems with great confidence,” adds Reed. “We are thrilled with the outcome of this install and the Salalah Municipality said the show has been well received by the audiences and far exceeded expectations.”
AV Stumpfl recently confirmed that its PIXERA media server was selected to support a new immersive experience in Vienna, Austria focussed on the life and work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Image credits: GT Stagetech
