The Briefing Room

Stimulated, Inc., experts at streamlining the multiformat process, have once again turned to Vista Systems’ Spyder for a high-profile TV project: the “2008 MTV Movie Awards” which aired live on the cablenet, June 1st. Mike Myers hosted the popular annual awards show from Universal City’s Gibson Amphitheatre.

Burbank-based Stimulated, Inc. specializes in original screen content for TV award shows, major TV music and event specials, concert tours and game shows. It first tapped Vista Spyder video processing technology for Al Gore’s “Live Earth” for which they created the Giants Stadium screen content. The company subsequently used Spyder on the game shows “1 vs. 100,” “Moment of Truth,” and “Duel” and on “Ellen’s Really Big Show,” a TBS special hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.

Stimulated owner, Robb Wagner notes that producers live in an increasingly multi-format world, and the “2008 MTV Movie Awards” were no exception. “This year’s show was a convergence of all formats: We mixed 1080i cameras, 720P and 1080i Profiles, SDI and 720p screen feeds. The Vista Spyder enabled me, as the Screens Producer, to make the best decisions about which format to use for every source and feed.

He emphasizes that with Spyder deftly handling the multiple formats “there was no upconverting, crossconverting or downconverting between our system and MTV’s Pegasus HD truck. Wagner was especially pleased by how much he could accomplish before he arrived on site. . “We preprogram our Spyder, so we can arrive on site ready to run the show”. Spyder is used as the go-between for the content and screens.

Stimulated called on Greg Byrnes of High Resolution Engineering to engineer the show. Wagner and Byrnes staged the screens control room at Stimulated, then duplicated it on site “which makes for a very quick and efficient set up.”

About Vista Systems

Vista Systems was acquired by Christie, a global leader in visual solutions for business, entertainment and industry, to create a comprehensive source for imaging processing and projection solutions. The acquisition combines the power and flexibility of Vista’s video switchers and real-time windowing and composition products with the power, performance and reliability of award-winning Christie projection systems. Vista Systems’ switchers have become the industry standard for live multiple-destination video and data mixed signal switching. For more information on Vista Systems, visit their Web site at www.vistasystems.net.