Customer Stories
ST 2110 at Work with Matrox ConvertIP Series
The Great Hall at Avant Gardner
Nestled in Brooklyn, New York, Avant Gardner has established itself as a premier music venue, renowned for hosting high-profile DJs and musical artists like Tiësto and Diplo. Since its inception in 2017, Avant Gardner has become a notable destination for live music events, offering sophisticated visual and auditory experiences that require advanced technology to manage and execute.
Stephen Wyker, the Chief Technical Officer at Avant Gardner, has been integral to the venue's success. Joining the team at its inception, Stephen has held various roles, including head of production and technical director. His extensive hands-on engineering experience has been pivotal in integrating cutting-edge technologies that enhance the venue’s capabilities.
Avant Gardner’s business revolves around delivering high-quality live music experiences. The venue primarily hosts live performances, with approximately 90% of artists bringing their own content and around 50% bringing their own hardware. This diversity necessitates a flexible and robust technical setup capable of accommodating different playback formats and resolutions.
To manage this variety of content, Avant Gardner uses media servers like TouchDesigner for pixel-accurate, full-resolution playback. Resolume is commonly used due to its familiarity among VJs and artists, facilitating an easy workflow. These servers handle content up to 16K wide, ensuring highquality visual experiences.
Avant Gardner employs the SMPTE ST 2110 standard for transmitting uncompressed video over IP networks. This technology offers significant advantages, including reduced cabling requirements and increased flexibility in content management. Currently, ST 2110 is used for a large outdoor LED wall, with plans to extend this technology to an indoor space with a 180-degree video wall this year. This approach demonstrates Avant Gardner’s commitment to using advanced, forward-thinking technology solutions.
Panasonic’s Kairos platform is a critical component of Avant Gardner’s content delivery workflow. It provides the necessary infrastructure to manage and display high-resolution content effectively, in addition to providing scaling services and low latency video inputs for functions such as IMAG. The venue plans to use the Kairos platform for the new video installation as well, reflecting confidence in Panasonic’s technology to meet Avant Gardner’s evolving technical requirements.
Matrox ConvertIP devices are essential for managing video inputs and outputs across the venue’s network, even in challenging outdoor conditions. The use of Matrox Video devices has added significant flexibility, allowing for easy placement of media servers and other equipment while reducing the complexity of the setup. Matrox Video’s support team was instrumental in resolving technical challenges, particularly those related to firmware and switch compatibility.
Training staff on IT-centric technologies like ST 2110 has been challenging due to a gap in traditional broadcast and video professionals’ understanding. Avant Gardner has invested in training and educating its team to bridge this knowledge gap, ensuring smooth operation and maintenance of the advanced technical setup.
In the competitive live music and events market, Avant Gardner’s strategic adoption of advanced technologies positions it as a leader for artists and audiences. Avant Gardner plans to extend the use of IP video technology and advanced platforms like Panasonic’s Kairos to new installations.
This article originally ran in Sound & Video Contractor.