Hippotizer V4 -- The Heavyweight at WrestleMania 31If Roman circuses had LED walls, they might look like WrestleMania 31, where modern gladiators entertained 77,000 people and one million PPV subscribers. For the spectacle, one end of Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California had a truly massive mélange of LED panel screens, as wide as 400' and as high as 40'. Driving media content to the LED displays were five Hippotizer V4 Boreals: Three with four mixes each of 1920x1080 output and two with two mixes, each in pan mode at 3840x1080. Preprogrammed media content was created by WWE's in-house graphics team. Specifically designed for each flamboyant Superstar, motifs ranged from the Kremlin to the Gates of Hell. "We pushed the V4s to the limit on this one," says WWE media platforms manager, John Weston, "running 12 outputs at 12 layers per mix, HD and wide. The cues played back extremely fast. After using Hippotizer V3s for seven years, the transition to V4 was a natural step. V4 represents a vast improvement in many ways and we were very pleased with the results." Weston adds, "The technical support we received from TMB and Green Hippo was a big help as always." Upstaging provided the Hippotizers for the event. "The new V4 Hippotizers are smoking fast machines," says Upstaging's Tony Thompson. "The hardware is rock solid and its onboard EDID management is top of the line. We're already planning to send V4 on a Lady Antebellum's upcoming concert tour and that will be the first of many." Jason Robinson is production designer for WWE, and video programming was done by John Weston and Aron Altmark. The new Hippotizer V4 range includes Taiga, Boreal, Karst, and Amba models, with various output capabilities and features including upgraded versions of all the renowned Hippotizer components, plus new SHAPE 3D mapping tool, STRATA Caddy SSD System, and improved ZooKeeper UI, now with 3D live or pre-visualization. V4 provides innovative new features, along with upgrades of all the old Hippotizer favorites, in a completely new package featuring enterprise class components and rock-solid construction for unprecedented performance. Hippotizer is exclusively distributed in the Americas by TMB. See TMB and Green Hippo at PLASA Focus: Kansas City, May 20 - 21.
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