Archive for the ‘Alcorn McBride Products’ Category

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How to Produce QFHD UltraHD 4K Video

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

Although I spend most of my days designing software for our products, I get to take a few days each year creating video content for our trade show booths.  InfoComm2013 is just a few weeks away, so this is an ideal time to talk about producing 4K videos.  The most important thing I have learned over the past few days developing the content for our booth is:

It is surprisingly easy to create and display 4K video!

The four things you need are:

  1. resources
  2. playback device
  3. editing / encoding software
  4. a display device

There are already lots of choices out there to cover these requirements, so I’ll just talk about what I used.  Read more...

Posted in Alcorn McBride Products, Audio and Video, Technology Notes, Tips from our Engineers | Comments Off

Alcorn McBride Helps Las Vegas’s New Mob Museum Tell Both Sides of the Story

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

There are two sides to every story, as the tag line for the Mob Museum in Las Vegas reminds us, and Alcorn McBride is helping the city’s newest attraction tell the tales of both organized crime and law enforcement.  The Mob Museum is utilizing a full inventory of Alcorn McBride equipment for audio, video and show control throughout its historic 1930’s location, a former federal courthouse and post office.

The museum, which opened in February, showcases the notorious battle between organized crime and law enforcement with high-tech theater presentations, iconic artifacts – including the actual brick wall from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre – and interactive exhibits and environments, including FBI wiretap surveillance and weapons training.  The project was designed by Ray Kent, Westlake Reed Leskosky.  AVI-SPL was the primary AV integrator, with programming support by Kevin Ruud.  Ryan Markus and Nester Ramos, Mob Museum’s AV/IT staff, handle ongoing maintenance and system programming.  Read more...

Posted in Alcorn McBride Products, Audio and Video, Lighting, Museums, Show Control | Comments Off

InfoComm Preview: See us at Booth C9225!

Monday, June 11th, 2012

Alcorn McBride Inc. will be making headlines at InfoComm 2012 by introducing three important products, announcing a product upgrade and hosting a Manufacturer’s training session and cutting-edge technology seminar.  The company’s booth, C9225, will be located in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

In product news, TourTraXX, RideTraxx and AMI/O will make their debut at InfoComm and ShowTouch for Apple iPad will get an update.

A GPS-triggered multi-channel vehicle audio player designed for up to 16 audio tracks, TourTraXX is ideal for pre-recorded bus tours, trolleys, shuttles and trams.  It stores clips in MP3 format on CompactFlash for a rugged, reliable and maintenance-free solution to playback needs.  It is lightweight (4 lbs.), sized to fit almost anywhere and, with no moving parts, works in high-vibration environments.  Once programmed with the free and easy to use GPS Builder, TourTraXX steps through cues automatically as it moves through defined geographical zones.  Read more...

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Posted in Alcorn McBride Products, Audio and Video, GPS, Show Control, Trade Show Buzz | Comments Off

GPS Passthrough Makes It Easy To Create And Change Routes

Friday, June 8th, 2012

The TourTraXX is a 16 channel MP3 audio player designed for installation in vehicles.  The TourTraXX can use its GPS location to trigger any number of commands such as Play, Stop, Set Volume, Write to an External LCD Display, and more.  These commands are entered into a GPS playlist using the GPS Builder software available as a free download from our support software website.

In the past, it was necessary to enter coordinates manually or connect an additional GPS antenna directly to your laptop to retrieve the current location for a GPS trigger.  It is now possible to use the GPS antenna connected to the TourTraXX to retrieve GPS coordinates.  This greatly simplifies the process of creating and changing GPS triggers because there is no need for an additional GPS antenna.  Read more...

Posted in Audio and Video, GPS, Tips from our Engineers | Comments Off

WinScriptLive Device Variables

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

In the most recent release of WinScriptLive (version 2.0.0.1), you now have the ability to create your own “device variables”. These variables always begin with a prefix of your device name and a period. For example, “myDVMHD.” These variables are found under the normal “variables view” and then clicking on the “device variables” button.

Previously, device variables were only created automatically using the configuration in the product file. Now, you can create your own.These can be useful if you’d like to keep a set of variables for a particular device. For example, you may already have a “device variable” automatically created for “lamp hours”, but you could create your own for “total lamp replacements” or “lowest lamp hours recorded”. Or, in the case of audio, you may have a “playing” variable, but you could also create a “number of times played today” variable for something like a Touch display.  Read more...

Posted in Alcorn McBride Products, Show Control, Tips from our Engineers | Comments Off

Show Control Training at InfoComm 2012

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

On Friday, June 15th from 1:00-2:30pm we are hosting a training session on Show Control. It is an introductory level session, focusing on V16Pro/V4Pro show control programming and Touch, our easy-to-use graphical user interface software.  The 90 minute course is approved for 1 CTS RU.  Please call or email me at loren@alcorn.com for more details.

If you need a Free VIP Exhibits Pass to InfoComm 2012, please use our code ALC700 when prompted for online registration.

Jeremy Scheinberg, our COO, is an instructor this year presenting on the topic of Mobile Technology.  His session, Personalized Experiences in a Group Environment is on Thursday from 2:20-4:30pm.  If you are interested, please visit the InfoComm Education Page for more details.  Read more...

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Posted in Alcorn McBride Products, People, Trade Show Buzz | No Comments »

ISE 2012

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Larry and I just got back from ISE 2012 in Amsterdam.  Despite the frigid temperatures, it was a great show.  It’s a big show extending through multiple exhibit halls that are all fairly disconnected but people found us without a problem.  I guess it helps to be next to a pizza stand!

We showed off ProTraXX, V16 Pro, Touch, DMX OverRide, the Digital Binloop HD, the Digital Video Machine HD and our MediaFlow workflow solution.  Read more...

Posted in Alcorn McBride Products, Audio and Video, Lighting, People, Show Control, Trade Show Buzz | No Comments »

Immersive Video Game Demo Includes New Special Effect – Pain!

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

The Gadget Show – a product of the UK’s Channel 5 – built a custom immersive experience revolving around the new First-Person Shooter game Battlefield 3.  The demo – which was estimated to cost around $650,000 – uses an igloo-like dome with 5 HD video projectors, surround sound, LED lighting to augment the video screens, motion tracking and a really cool omni-directional treadmill.  Using all of these elements together, they are able to really put the player right into the game.  Read more...

Posted in Applications, Lighting, Show Control, Technology Notes | No Comments »

SATE 2011 – Personalized Technology Panel

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

The SATE 2011 Technology panel was a great success.  Special thanks to Dave Cobb from Thinkwell, Mark Gilicinski from MobileXpeditions and Rick Borovoy from MIT Media Lab/Google.

The panel discussed how we as designers can utilize technology to create a unique, personalized experience in a themed environment instead of competing with iZombies.  We all know who the iZombies are (I’m one of them!).  They are the people walking down the street (or in a theme park) texting, tweeting and totally unaware of everything around them.  This is the growing audience we need to embrace.  Our options are either to design around them or to create more compelling experiences that use technologies like mobile, RFID, etc. to engage them in the overall experience.  Read more...

Posted in Applications, GPS, Museums, Show Control, Technology Notes, Theme Parks, Themed Entertainment News | No Comments »

The Legend of “The Cloud”

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

I am desperately awaiting the introduction of the iPhone 5…or the iPhone 4G…or maybe we will just skip right to the iPhone 9.  But one of the most exciting parts of the new iPhone (whenever it may arrive) isn’t related to the hardware at all.  It is the support in iOS5 for what Apple is calling “iCloud”.

“Cloud Computing” is tossed around a lot.  The idea of having our data stored in some magical cloud seems like it solves all problems.  I am excited about iCloud because it potentially allows me to sync my files (music, pictures, apps) without having to rely on a computer.  Even if I backup my data religiously, there is always the concern that the backup device may fail.  Relying on others who hopefully have a more robust backup mechanism than I do seems like a great option…for my phone.  Read more...

Posted in Alcorn McBride Products, Applications, Audio and Video, Museums, Technology Notes, Theme Parks | Comments Off

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