Contact in the Desert, produced by Paul Andrews and Victoria GeVoian
Click here for Linda Moulton Howe – Paul Andrews and Victoria GeVoian On Fade To Black (Jimmy Church Radio)
Click here for photos of Contact in the Desert event and setup…
Enlightened Films was called in by producers to Contact in the Desert 2016 to manage the Amphitheater at Joshua Tree Retreat Center., California.
The Amphitheater outdoor seating area was the largest space for attendees to view the conference panels and film events. The Amphitheater filming platform was 150 feet back from the stage. The laptops needed to have a minimum HDMI (1920 x 1080) video signal to sync with the Blackmagic switcher on the platform. Speakers were bringing their laptops that were several years old, with lower resolution graphics that could not sync with the Blackmagic switcher. Mac laptops that were several years old were brought by speakers with resolutions that were too low to sync with the switching equipment (Less than HD signal resolution – 1440 x 900, 1280 x 800, 1024 x 640 pixel displays were all too low resolution to be usable.) Requesting speaker’s Powerpoint and Keynote presentations and linked movies before the event would help solve this problem.
We brought HDMI and SDI video signals from the cameras and the laptops into the Blackmagic switcher. The CITD logo graphics were given to me on a flash drive, and we imported that into the BlackMagic switcher. My Panasonic Lumix GH4, my Sony NEX-VG20 and the JVC rental company ENG camera all produced the appropriate 1920 x 1080 over HDMI or SDI to sync with the switcher. The HDMI cable needed to be no more than twenty feet with BlackMagic equipment, so it only worked on the film platform). SDI or Ethernet can be used for longer cable runs. BlackMagic Design Micro Converter HDMI to SDI – could be a better choice than what we used from the Mac Powerpoint laptop). Temperatures up to 114 degrees were a major issue for every electronic device (especially those that were exposed to direct sunlight), causing us to lose video sync and stopping the SSD recording on the film platform! Despite technical challenges, we were able to solve most technical issues and we put on a great event!