Organisation: LED Creative
Location: Banban, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Who is LED Creative?
LED Creative is a premier provider of LED sales, rentals, installations, and bespoke design services. Renowned for its expertise in projects of all sizes, from small-scale installations to massive international tours, LED Creative has become a trusted name in the industry. Their impressive portfolio includes high-profile events such as the Eurovision Song Contest, the BAFTA Awards, and The Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
The Project
LED Creative was tasked with illuminating key set elements of the monumental “Big Beast” stage at SoundStorm 2024, a major event held as part of Riyadh Season. This marked their most ambitious project to date, requiring an extensive 2,750 meters of 96 LEDs/M pixel strip to bring Vita Motus’s stage design to life.
Lighting designers for various touring artists were given the flexibility to either control the system directly or sample live video content to play across the LED structure. To ensure seamless integration, all LED elements were precisely mapped to align with the world-record-breaking 51,667 sq. ft. LED wall positioned upstage. The content was fed through a Disguise media server, received in 4K resolution, and processed using LightJams LED Mapper.
Execution
Brad Purse, Technical Manager, highlighted the critical importance of achieving flawless frame synchronization between the pixel system and video content.
"Ensuring perfect frame sync between the pixels and video system was key. The system needed to ingest 4K 60FPS and synchronize over 250,000 LED pixels distributed across the network with the media server."
Advatek’s PixLite® Mk3 controllers played a pivotal role in meeting these technical demands, delivering precise synchronization and reliability at scale.
Advatek's Role
With an extensive setup required in a tight timeframe, LED Creative relied heavily on Advatek’s solutions for efficiency. Chris Rustage of LED Creative noted:
"The A4-S’s inbuilt eFusing and gigabit network loop-through were crucial in ensuring on-time delivery. If any damage occurred to the pixel strips during installation or due to metal expansion and contraction, we could diagnose issues remotely using Advatek Assistant instead of manually replacing fuses at a 25-meter height—this saved us a significant amount of time."
System Programmer and Network Technician James Walton further emphasized the software’s role in streamlining the workflow:
"Advatek Assistant 3 was a game-changer. It allowed us to configure the installation as a whole rather than addressing each device individually. With over 250 devices on the network, the ability to detect, rename, modify settings, and check fuse statuses in one interface significantly boosted efficiency."
Results
The success of the project was evident in the final execution. Walton reflected on the precision and performance:
"Everyone was thrilled with the outcome, especially with the accuracy and sync we achieved. The PixLite Mk3’s live statistics reporting enabled me to push all pixel strips to their maximum possible frame rate while using the dithering function to simulate an additional ‘9th-bit’ of dimming without frame drops. The onboard gamma correction also allowed fine-tuning of overall colour and brightness, preserving bit-depth and enhancing colour accuracy—particularly in tricky hues like oranges and magentas."
Every element of the drivers worked as expected with over 250 Advatek A4-S and there were zero faults!Tim Rees – Senior Project Manager at LED Creative
LED Creative has integrated over 250 Advatek A4-S Pixel Controllers into custom-built, self-contained 1U touring controllers, equipped with an inbuilt power supply and locking, touring-grade connectors for rapid deployment. This strategic investment ensures efficiency and reliability for future large-scale productions.
The collaboration between LED Creative and Advatek delivered a seamless, visually stunning experience at SoundStorm 2024, setting new benchmarks for large-scale LED mapping and synchronization in live event production.
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