Advanced Designs Unique Mobile Video Wall for "The Social"

What do you do when your TV show uses a video wall for direct viewer interaction, but the entire set needs to be mobile because other shows film on the same soundstage throughout the day? According to the makers of the new CTV talk show "The Social", you call AV and IT integrator Advanced to develop an innovative mobile video wall solution that can be easily rolled on and off the set.

Advanced recognized that the show needed a solution as technologically advanced as the show's concept, which capitalizes on social media to make viewers a part of the show, allowing folks at home to tweet and message the show in real time and influence discussions and pose questions. It's the 21st century's answer to the old mainstay of "let's go to our next caller," and the set deserved a 21st-century display to show the audience's input.

The most amazing thing may not be the display itself, but the fact that Advanced designed built and installed the custom mount and display in just two weeks working only after-hours, from the day the order was placed to completion. According to Advanced's general manager of systems integration Omar Prashad, systems such as this one usually require a four- to six-week lead time, which meant that the team had to work 24 hours a day for the final two days to have it finished for the show's debut on September 2.

"We've never built a mobile video wall before," he says. "So there was a lot of brainstorming at the very beginning to determine the best way to build the mount that houses all nine 46" displays. It's not something a lot of AV companies could do, but we developed a custom mobile mounting solution with custom welding that can be moved by a single person, even though it weighs nearly 800lb. We also couldn't be on the set during the day because it's used for a variety of programming, so we constructed the mount offsite and then spent the final two days working around the clock to get it integrated with the switchboard and working flawlessly for its debut on the air on Monday."

The video wall is composed of nine 46" ultra-thin NEC X463UN displays, creating a nearly seamless 138" display that gives viewers an HD view of show graphics that may include photos, videos, text, and live viewer feeds from Twitter and other social networks. The video feed is delivered directly from the switchboard to a Kramer scaler that optimizes the incoming signal and then sends to the video wall.

"It was a lot of pressure to design, deliver, color calibrate, and make sure it was 100% working in such a short time frame, but it was exciting to see it all happen," Prashad adds. "There's nothing Advanced can't do, and this last-minute mobile video wall is an incredible proof of that philosophy."