CIC carries out its first 5K experience for the video wall that Sharp has in its Tokyo showroom

CIC enVision software enables viewing of 5K panoramic movies on the video wall, composed of 27 LCD panels 60 inches in 9 format×3, that Sharp has installed in its Tokyo exhibition center.

Sharp Electronics has created a demonstration center in Tokyo that has several floors. A large video wall has been installed in one of the rooms., that takes up an entire wall, composed of 27 LCD panels 60 inches arranged in 9 format×3. This screen displays Dorian Weber widescreen films with a resolution of up to 60.000 pixels x 5000 pixels. To display these interactive contents, the enVision software is being used. Content Interface Corporation (CIC) in combination with the CIC enLighten viewer. An Android tablet is used to carry out management and control..

Each film contains 12 a 24 5K videos. Each 5K video has a resolution of 2,700×5.120 pixels, taken in portrait mode with a digital film camera Red Epic. This large video wall shows 5K panoramic videos with scenes from the Rainbow Bridge suspension bridge in Tokyo.

The beginnings in 4K

This project was started by Content Interface (CIC) in 2011, at which time it was decided to install digital signage on a large screen 3.840 pixels x 2.160 pixels where 4K content was offered. Later, The company has decided to go one step further and include 5K technology in a format of 5.120 pixels x 2.700 pixels in order to offer public demonstrations of its products and solutions.

The contents of the first 4K initiative carried out by CIC were made with DAB (Digital Art Board) of Dentsu. After two years of working on 4K projects, the company decided it was ready to go to 5K.

CIC came up with the idea of ​​recording a series of 5K videos, taken with a Red Epic digital camera, to create a large panoramic movie superior to 60.000 pixels per 5.000 pixels. The goal was to design a large-scale environment, Visual immersion using standard low-cost equipment.

This technique can be used to carry out high quality projects such as tourism promotions., exhibitions or large events. Besides, CIC plans to make smaller versions that may be of interest for public places, shops or airports, where videos can be offered combining panoramic views of different places with advertisements.

Reduce costs to move to 5K

Originally , CIC had planned to record panoramic videos of 360 degrees with 24 Red Epic digital cinema cameras but realized that the project was too expensive. Besides, The storage required to store the resulting movie also had to be enormous, since even after converting RAW files to Quicktime format, an hour of film would take up about 30 Terabytes . Besides, for the combination of all the pixels it would be necessary 24 4K2K monitors 24 equivalent resolution video displays. And a large number of computers with high-end graphics cards would also be necessary to manage the monitors or video screens., and they all had to be synchronized.

The challenge that CIC faced was to convert this entire complicated process into a manageable and less expensive material..
Instead of using 24 video cameras simultaneously, CIC decided to use a single camera. With the help of a panoramic rotation head, The videos were taken in portrait mode, at intervals of 15 degrees with a lens 55 standard millimeters to minimize distortion and parallax. By choosing a landscape that was not too busy, and with careful planning and execution, CIC found that the effect on the time difference in the videos was minimal, while the spatial resolution remained intact.

Experimenting between various codecs, CIC found a codec that, supported with 5K resolution, offered reasonable quality, It did not require large amounts of storage space and allowed a dozen 5K videos to be managed simultaneously on a PC..

Panoramas of 210 degrees

CIC made dozens of panoramic films around Tokyo and its surrounding areas. Instead of a perspective of 360 degrees, The filming was executed in a view of 210 degrees and joined in 13 o 14 5K videos. Most clips have dimensions around 35,000×5.000 pixels.

CIC verified that the filming allowed an incredible level of detail. By using two standard PCs, each equipped with an AMD FirePro W600 video card, CIC was able to show the films on a composite video screen 12 1080p monitors (6.480 pixels x 3.840 pixels). Since from the video wall you can only show the 25% of the movies, the company developed software to see the rest in an interactive panorama.

El software CIC enVision, in combination with the enLighten viewer, It is used to display panoramic movies on a video wall composed of 27 LCD panels 60 inches in 9 format×3.

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