Part of the International Festival of Audiovisual Creation, the LEV Festival (Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual) was recently held for the ninth year in Gijón, Spain. The unique, multi-venue festival is internationally renowned for pushing audiovisual boundaries based on four themes – the natural synergy between image and sound; live presentation; the relationship between audience, artist and public space; and emerging artistic trends.

Roland’s XS-84H multi-format A/V matrix switcher operated as the main hub for the visual configurations for live performances on the main stage in the Laboral Theatre throughout the festival. The XS-84H was used to control the main visual projection to a 15K HD projector at the front of the stage, as well as three additional projectors to the left, centre and right of the stage. The HDBaseT outputs on the XS-84H provided the connection for the all-digital signal between FOH and stage, easily achieving a run of around 75m using Cat5e cable with no loss of resolution. All of the artists used visuals from FOH for their performances with the XS-84H managing all of the A/V variables.

The Roland XS Series features eight HDMI, RGB/Component/S-video/Composite inputs and up to four HDMI or HDBaseT outputs with built in scalers to enable picture-in-picture, resizing, rotating and flipping. Audio can be embedded into outputs via eight stereo audio inputs (two mic) and/or HDMI audio as well as de-embedded on output. Additional features of the Roland XS Series include remote iPad control, EDID emulation for HDMI and RGB signal management and HDCP key master to maintain authentication information for each HDMI source.

Also in the Laboral Theatre, a special production set-up was required for a performance from Cabaret Voltaire. Making only their second live performance in 20 years, the line up for the show consisting of machines and multi-screen projections (and Richard H Kirk) also included VHS recordings. The set-up was required to bring analogue VHS video into a digital environment, and present it to HD projectors. The V-800HD and V-1600HD Multi Format Video Switchers were used for this task, with no need to match input sources to the output resolution as every input has its own broadcast-quality scaler to individually scale, stretch, crop and zoom each source as required to fit any output resolution chosen.

Another venue, the Laboral Art Centre, a second Roland V-1600HD managed the visuals for the live performance stage using several RGB and DVI inputs and driving those to a 20K HD projector. The onboard screen made the video checks easy during the changeover of live bands.

‘To be a part of the LEV Festival we really had to offer something special that fitted the cutting-edge nature of the event, the performances and the production requirements,’ says Roland ProAV Product Manager Nico Suaréz, at the helm of the Roland set-up throughout the festival

Festival Director Nacho de la Vega adds: ‘The festival showcases a massive variety of technologies and events across different venues – all to a tight production schedule. We can rely on the Roland products to perform whatever the event. Their multi format capability gives us the confidence that these products can deal with the unexpected in real time, keeping each production running smoothly.’

More: http://proav.roland.com