Enhance the Music Festival Experience with Video Walls.

As music festivals get ever bigger having strategically placed video walls ensure that all festival-goers get a good view of the on-stage action. What's involved in getting video walls installed on a festival site and what are the key benefits derived by festival-goers and festival organisers.

Advancements in technology have enabled bigger video walls to be installed with ever increasing quality. For any music festival that has in excess of 50,000 visitors getting close to the stage can be challenging and video walls placed throughout a site mean they never miss their favourite artist’s sets.

Video Wall Technology. 
The use of LED (Light Emitting Diode) screens over the older LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screens has enabled the creation of ever larger video walls. LED screens don’t require a backlight and produce coloured light on their own when a voltage is applied to them. This makes them brighter and enables the use of the preferred HD video format. In addition, the LED screens have no bezels so they can be stacked together to create a composite image so content is delivered seamlessly across all the panels. LED screens have no requirement for filaments making them more energy-efficient so they don’t burn out or run hot. Most festival organisers will opt to hire their video wall installation as they can be prohibitively expensive to purchase. 

Installation and Maintenance. 
Assuming that an external contractor is supplying the video wall it is essential that consideration is given to the installation particularly regarding safety. LED video walls can be very heavy and if not installed correctly can topple over. For an outdoor festival site, it is essential to ensure that the video wall is fully weatherproofed too. Due to sunlight, it is suggested that screens with a higher pixel pitch are used as outdoor LED video walls need to be a lot brighter than indoor walls. For live streaming content it is normal to use a 16:9 aspect ratio. The contractor will recommend all the correct settings required for Illuminance, Contrast Ratio, Refresh Rate, Pixel Density and Pixel Pitch. The contractor will also need to supply a suitable ‘Video Wall Controller’ for high-performance processing and control to deliver quality content. 

Benefits. 
Aside from enhancing the festival experience of seeing on-stage performances up close a video wall also serves as good channel to supply helpful information regarding schedule changes, directions and other important announcements in real time. It’s possible to link social media feeds in real time too so festival-goers can feel more engaged with the event. Video walls can be great for sponsors as they can show advertisements between artist’s sets and even sponsor the video wall themselves contributing to the hire costs.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by David Mark from Pixabay

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