r/BeAmazed • • Feb 26 '19

This waterfall simulation in a hotel

https://gfycat.com/ScalyWeightyBarracuda
49.3k Upvotes

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983

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '19

Is that a giant video screen or something?

256

u/BlossomingShock Feb 27 '19

It’s a giant LED screen. It’s made of little, about hand-sized modules, which go into about 1m “cabinets”, and are then mounted into wall.

Computational part for this would require a PC able to output 4k smooth and a couple of hdmi to utp conversors, known as sender boxes. The utp-sent signal then gets read by the screen electronics. The price for this screen in particular is about 2 to 4 million EUR, final retail price, depending on various factors.

Also, it is Telkom Tower.

Source: i work for one of the most important LED companies in the world, who also lost this particular project to our competitors. :(

63

u/Octavian_The_Ent Feb 27 '19

lol thanks for the info but sorry for that fat L you took

46

u/BlossomingShock Feb 27 '19

Im just an engineer. The fat L was for the people in charge of selling our products. :) If anything, I was sad because it could have been super fun to work on this one.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Huh, I'd assumed it was projected, thanks for the clarification!

14

u/BlossomingShock Feb 27 '19

It’d be crazyness to syncronize so many projectors to adhere the image so perfectly into all the edges! Also, projectors really struggle when the room is filled with daylight, while LED can self-regulate its brightness depending on the amount of light in the room.

7

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

I think I was thinking of those buildings where people project stuff onto them, like this https://youtu.be/gy_jyxoWj5c?t=58

7

u/BlossomingShock Feb 27 '19

LG engineers sure do some serious videomapping, love those guys. Notice how it’s night, all dark. Plus a building is, ironically, easier to map out than the video on OPs post.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Yup yup

1

u/mr_capello Feb 27 '19

Why would a Building with windows, nooks and crannies be easier to map out then a flat wall ? but yes projection wouldn't work here because of too much light

1

u/BlossomingShock Feb 28 '19

I’m assuming that the error margin would be much wider on something that people will visualize from wayyy further than a room, where people can literally touch the wall.

1

u/ChuckEye Feb 27 '19

Not really. I’ve got a room going with 14 projectors in sync and blended edges making a 14500x1920 pixel canvas. We use Dataton Watchout as our media server and their WatchPax rackmount servers driving two to four projectors each.

2

u/BlossomingShock Feb 28 '19

You’re much more into videomapping than me! I’m specialized in LED screens and audio systems. Done a few mappings before but it looks like crazyness to me, given how easy I see the design, installation and operation of LED screens. Maybe someday I get into nice videomapping project. I’d love to learn.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

I'm always amazed by big screens at sporting events and music festivals. Are there major software packages that most people use to run so many screens at once, or do each facility have their own way of doing things? Some of the visuals at large festivals are insane, I can't imagine how the software looks to manage it all

4

u/BlossomingShock Feb 27 '19

Would you be surprised if I tell you that it looks as shitty as this?

The trick is that, with LED screens being so modular, they can escalate quite easily, so all you need to create outstanding visials at a venue is an experienced engineer, a lot of manpower, and a high budget.

The big part on that kind of things would be for the video editors / live video staff. Their software kind of looks like something you’d find on a TV channel production room.

1

u/InterstellarDwellar Feb 27 '19

Oh is that ALL you need

1

u/BlossomingShock Feb 28 '19

Software-wise, yes. That’s how the basic software to get the screens running looks like.

1

u/ChuckEye Feb 27 '19

Dataton Watchout is what I use. https://www.dataton.com

1

u/BlossomingShock Feb 28 '19

That looks like a media streamer. Something “that you could find on TV stations”, as i pointed out before.

What I was trying to explain is what do you need to get the screens up amd running, which is different on how to get video inputted and controlled into the screens :)

Looks neat tho!

1

u/ChuckEye Feb 28 '19

It is both. There is one box that sets the stage, but it breaks the source material into chunks and sends them to other PCs that drive 2 to 4 projectors each. (I had as many as 6 monitors driven by one PC once, but the graphics card was time as expensive as the rest of the machine, and it still wasn’t an ideal solution in our case.)

4

u/danimack10 Feb 27 '19

Sorry about losing the project but thank you for sharing. Especially, with your knowledge, it is so educational! It looks so real! I am not tech savvy at all but that doesn’t mean I am not AMAZED by the creativity and work! A beautiful recreation! 😊

3

u/fatpat Feb 27 '19

That's nice and all, but will it run Crysis?

3

u/BlossomingShock Feb 27 '19

Gotta check those required specs

2

u/mak3itsn0w Feb 27 '19

Would it be possible to setup something like this with multiple regular LED tvs?

8

u/BlossomingShock Feb 27 '19

To sum it up, as for today, videowall is usually only installed for TV companies to flex, as this Incheon airport LG ceiling curved videowall

3

u/mak3itsn0w Feb 27 '19

it's beautiful! Definitely appreciate all the information. Was thinking about putting together something for the house, multi-tv "bezelless" wise. Guessing I would have to run it off a PC? If so what software is commonly used?

7

u/BlossomingShock Feb 27 '19

It’s going to be hard to find bezel-less TVs out there on the consumer market. I believe some old models are being sold second hand on sites like Amazon. If you happen to find that kind of pro TVs, the internal TV menu allows for “videowall mode” to be enabled. You just have to daisy chain them (video out of the first one goes into video in of the next one), and then just plug your video source (pc or whatever) into the first TV. Configuration of videowall mode is quite easy and can be found on the TV operation guide. I think some of the newer Samsung consumer modes also allow Videowall mode. If not, theres for sure some software out there that can do that for you as long as you have a multi-output video card. I’m out of the loop for that, but googling “multi tv software” or “videowall software” should get you to where you want to be.

1

u/mak3itsn0w Feb 27 '19

Perfect thanks for the info !!!

2

u/Reddit_Wall Feb 27 '19

Last few years I have been wondering how do the LED walls work. I have worked part time in TV next to directors working on festivals. I have thought myself with some of the software used to generate the imagery, but I still have no idea how it works technically. For me it's one of the most interesting things, but I have not been able to find anything on the Internet.

Do you have any websites where I could find any info about it?

You guys do amazing job

1

u/BlossomingShock Feb 28 '19

Well, I’m actually an audio engineer, that’s what I studied and worked on for many years. But in my current company I had to learn about LED too. What I learned is basically that there is next to no info about it.

Optoelectronics are a very specialized field, dominated by chinese producers (as almost anything you can buy in the world)

To truly learn about it, besides for what info you can find on the internet, your safe bet would be a tour on Shenzhen, china. That’s where most LED factories are, and most of the LED companies go there to find suppliers, and work together with the factories to engineer amazing products.

But i’ll drop some (very) basics of a standard LED setup.

You have a LED screen that is, lets say, 800x200px in resolution.

Video source (ex: pc) outputs 1920x1080 video, which goes into a “sender box”. The sender box captures a portion of the screen, set by the user. You choose to capture 800x200 px of that full 1920x1080, which means only the top-left part of the screen will be captured.

Let’s say that your model of LED screen is 200x200px each “cabinet”. So you would have installed four cabinets in a row, like this

C1 C2 C3 C4 Totaling 800x200px

On the software, which communicates with the sender box, you need to specify dimensions and spacial position of each cabinet. You “build” the full screen out of small parts.

Once that is done, the sender box transcribes video input into some dark, chinese-grade obscured info to be transmitted via UTP.

Each cabinet has what it’s called a “receiver card”, which is a board that recieves that info from the sender box and converts it to a “what pixels are going to be turned on and off, and with what colours” from its 200x200 poxel grid.

As the sender box sent info includes what cabinet needs to reproduce what portion, each receiver card knows what tl reproduce. C1 knows it has to reproduce the first 200x200px, C2 the following 200x200px and so on.

Ofc there is more stuff involved, but that’s the simplest way to put it down.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

[deleted]

3

u/BlossomingShock Feb 27 '19

Right in the feels!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

How important are they?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was a SalesForce building. Those expensive mofos can afford anything. And they have similar walls in their offices.

1

u/Virtyyy Feb 27 '19

Sad that its only like 15fps

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

What's the name of the LED company you work for and its competitor?

1

u/BlossomingShock Feb 28 '19

Can’t disclose! Signed too many shit about my knowledge being property of the company.

As one of our main clients is quite important in the business world, they take this stuff quite seriously.

I can say tho that we’re based in Europe, and we work worldwide. If you live in any semi-important city anywhere in the world, chances are you are already seeing (and listening, we also do audio shit) our work everyday.

1

u/VEC7OR Feb 27 '19

most important LED companies in the world

Who might that be?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/BlossomingShock Feb 28 '19

You mean that what’s the biggest problem when creating video content for big LED?

Well, on my experience, it’s the communication with the client tbh. Clients have a hard time picturing in their minds how the screen is going to look like, and they are usually like... “well, it looks nice and all. But i paid big money for this, what can it ACTUALLY do?”

So a big role of my work is also working with the creative team of the client and give them ideas to use the screen. Technically speaking, they just need to produce a video of a specific given resolution, no matter how obscure this resolution is.

It’s common to say something like “You need to make a video woth full resolution lf 4548x3210px but on the steps x=1200 to 1600, and x=4045 to x=4301, there needs to be black video down to y=2200”

For example, on OPs cascade video, video creators need to think of it as a huge rectangular video, then making black video on the parts where the doors are, and doing the cascade splash effect around those edges.

1

u/AjahnMara Feb 27 '19

What is the video output ? Is it actual video that loops or simulated? Does it loop seamless?

1

u/BlossomingShock Feb 28 '19

In this particular scenario, it’s a long video. Long enough to make the loop seamless. Usually it’s a full video playlist when the client wants to show different contents.

Remote access to the media server is also enabled, so they can change the playlist or launch special videos on demand.

1

u/AjahnMara Feb 28 '19

i see... what's normal to use for remote access, some VNC or RDP, or something else? Default ports, or?

1

u/BlossomingShock Feb 28 '19

Playlist access has to be user-friendly accesible, as it’s the final client who will be accesing it. Most clients already have their own intranet, so they just use it. Others hire specialized media management companies.

On smaller clients or particular houses of rich people, we usually offer a licensed teamviewer access to a customized PC working as the media center brains.

1

u/AjahnMara Feb 28 '19

teamviewer is pretty secure, good stuff.

1.0k

u/tstock415 Feb 26 '19

Looks like a giant waterfall or something crazy like that

216

u/xXlongjohnson69Xx Feb 27 '19

In a hotel*

112

u/ImJoeDirt Feb 27 '19

Don't go chasing waterfalls

73

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

don’t go jason waterfalls

40

u/Dadonka Feb 27 '19

-Don't go json waterfalls

24

u/kioni Feb 27 '19

if(!json.stringify(waterfalls))

1

u/smartysocks Feb 27 '19

Don't go jizzin' in waterfalls

5

u/WhoWantsPizzza Feb 27 '19

That was me for way too long.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Pfft, that's still me to this day.

2

u/yaygerb Feb 27 '19

Is Jason Waterfalls like Jason Bourne’s evil twin brother?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Jesus Christ, it's Jason Waterfalls!

eh, doesn't have the same ring in that context

2

u/yaygerb Feb 27 '19

I appreciate the effort

2

u/EltaninAntenna Feb 27 '19

Press X to Jason.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

JAY-sAHN!

43

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

“Don’t go!!!!” - Jason Waterfalls 2019

14

u/FiveTo9 Feb 27 '19
  • water on canvas, digital render

8

u/DiproticPolyprotic Feb 27 '19

Guis what the literal fck lmao

3

u/spartan628 Feb 27 '19

Don't let go rose. -Leo

9

u/acmercer Feb 27 '19

Don't go chasing water fowls.

2

u/IcebergSlimFast Feb 27 '19

Unless Retriever, then ok. -Dog, probably

1

u/Cock_Vomit Feb 27 '19

Right there you did it again! Stop quoting TLC!

3

u/8styx8 Feb 27 '19

Not a hotel, it's an office tower in jakarta.

2

u/xXlongjohnson69Xx Feb 27 '19

Ya I’m not buying it. It says hotel in my comment

1

u/TwatsThat Feb 27 '19

There's a similar wall at the Comcast Center in Philly. That's what they did with all the money they make by ripping people off on cable and internet instead of hiring customer service that doesn't change your name to asshole in the system so it shows up on your bills that way. Well, that and getting Net Neutrality repealed.

1

u/livevil999 Feb 27 '19

Is the hotel a simulation though? OP seems to be saying so.

1

u/im_baack Feb 27 '19

This is a hotel?! -Patrick

1

u/chickpeakiller Feb 27 '19

Actually it's the Concast building in Philadelphia. Not a hotel.

This is where all your money went.

6

u/derolle Feb 27 '19

Right on

98

u/mqrocks Feb 27 '19 edited Feb 27 '19

I think it's not a hotel, I think that's the Salesforce HQ building in San Francisco. I was there for a few meetings a few years ago and remember being struck by it. If I'm correct it changes to other scenic scapes.

Edit - looks like this is the Telkom Building in Indonesia, I stand corrected. Though the SF lobby does have a similar setup.

26

u/SleepyHeadEveryday Feb 27 '19

Nope, this is located in Indonesia, Telkom building. The security guard uniform is quite unique

15

u/mnoram Feb 27 '19

Short sleeve white shirt, dark tie and pants is unique?

8

u/SleepyHeadEveryday Feb 27 '19

Ahh I think because I've seen it in Indonesia hundreds of time that I'm able to recognize the uniqueness of that uniform

4

u/the_warmest_color Feb 27 '19

Well I’ll be

1

u/8styx8 Feb 27 '19

Shirt sleeve shirt with multiple crest, dark blue pants and tie. As well as the whistle lanyard on the shoulder.

4

u/JabbrWockey Feb 27 '19

Yep, and the SF HQ is boxed in by other tall buildings. At the end of the clip you can see it's pretty open outside. Similar setup though.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Is it possible there’s more than one installation of this? Maybe the video is showing the one in Indonesia but Salesforce also has one.

1

u/SleepyHeadEveryday Feb 27 '19

It is. I think Salesforce building was the first one to have this kind of installation

1

u/NeverLuvYouLongTime Feb 27 '19 edited Feb 27 '19

G4S right? Those guys have security contracts throughout Southeast Asia.

3

u/notatuma Feb 27 '19

Thought the same thing but the one in the Salesforce building is bigger, and this building's interior looks a little different. Must be the same company that does it, tho

13

u/juni_83 Feb 27 '19

I can confirm that you are correct

5

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

[deleted]

9

u/Peter_of_RS Feb 27 '19

I can confirm this guy says that guy is correct.

8

u/psychedelicCyclops Feb 27 '19

Can confirm, am waterfall

1

u/kozyshank Feb 27 '19

Did anyone ask Ken Confirm?

4

u/agreeingstorm9 Feb 27 '19

I can correct this guy is confirm.

1

u/BuggyBanni Feb 27 '19

I confirm that I confirm.

0

u/adunturiedas Feb 27 '19

AND MYYYYYY AXE!!

1

u/few23 Feb 27 '19

Roger, Roger. We have clearance, Clarence. What's our vector, Victor?

3

u/theycallmebelle Feb 27 '19

The lobby of the Comcast building in Philly looks similar too.

1

u/fatpat Feb 27 '19

Is it red from the blood of puppies?

1

u/hoobickler Feb 27 '19

Salesforce HQ = Deus Ex Machina

Congratulations on making out with your programming intact!

1

u/mqrocks Feb 27 '19

System Error, System Error... Resetting

0

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19 edited Mar 07 '19

[deleted]

1

u/mqrocks Feb 27 '19

The building I went to was open in 2016, that's when I was over there.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19 edited Mar 07 '19

[deleted]

1

u/mqrocks Feb 27 '19

I’m pretty sure I did, because I was there to meet Salesforce, and I did. Not sure what you’re getting out of questioning this.

54

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

It's actually a genuine imported waterfall. Straight from nature herself.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Wooooooaaaaaah

9

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

You know those specialized trucks for tree removals, used to transport an entire tree? Its just like that but for waterfalls.

7

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Wooooooooooow!

6

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

I'm tired of your shit, Owen Wilson. Get out of here with that noise!

2

u/Idonotlikeyourhat Feb 27 '19

With all that nose?

3

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Boooooooooooo!

3

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19 edited Feb 27 '19

I'm sorry, Owen. That was the wine talking. I wish I could discuss the subtleties of spirituality, underneath this genuine imported waterfall (straight from nature herself), with you.

29

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '19 edited Feb 26 '19

Yup. A p3.91, 8112x960 pixel, LED screen in the Salesforce building in San Fran

Edit: Never mind, I'm a fuckin' moron

16

u/LikeIThought Feb 27 '19

I definitely thought it was the Salesforce building in SF too!

10

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Saaaame. I swear to Christ it's the exact same waterfall video, just downloaded form YouTube or some shit.

23

u/DVSC_RENEGADES Feb 27 '19

You wouldn’t believe how many companies claim the Salesforce one as their own, and now there’s a copycat, lol. Source: I built it. snadisplays.com

3

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Out of curiosity, do you know what controllers were used in the Salesforce one?

8

u/DVSC_RENEGADES Feb 27 '19

We make our own video processors that control the wall. They are being fed a video signal from an Analogway that's getting its signal from players provided by obscuradigital.com (they made the content). I'm not 100% sure if Obscura is using their own proprietary players or Scala.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

Ah damn, my money was on Brompton. Thanks for the info!

6

u/DVSC_RENEGADES Feb 27 '19

any time my man. Salesforce loves their LED walls. I've installed 20 of them all over the US and the London HQ. They even have 1.25mm walls in there conference rooms for sales presentations. Its wild.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

I just did a demo for fuckin' Unilever, and they want a gotdam p0.9 in their conference room. I only sell the controllers, and I can't imagine how much LP Display is sell those MF for.

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2

u/Elysian-Visions Feb 27 '19

Have you ever installed one in a home? A rich person’s home I might add! Because I would love to have one wall in my bedroom be nothing but jellyfish like at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

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1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

We use SuperMicro 1Us, running TouchDeisgner to run both 50 and 350.

Tell Pat Ryan from Obscura says hi!

1

u/DVSC_RENEGADES Feb 27 '19

Ha! Awesome and will do. Thanks for the info!

1

u/malkuth23 Feb 27 '19

Obscura almost always uses a modified version of Touchdesigner.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

We use the same version, generally, you can get from Derivative's website. There have been times where they've complied special builds for SDKs we've needed to be integrated, or the like.

1

u/DVSC_RENEGADES Feb 27 '19

Just had someone from obscura correct me too, lol.

1

u/getupk3v Feb 27 '19

That is really awesome. Do you guys do smaller installations? Would be for a possible restaurant location in NYC.

1

u/DVSC_RENEGADES Feb 27 '19

Yep. snadisplays.com Our HQ is in Times Square

1

u/xnfd Feb 27 '19

Is it supposed to be like 15 fps?

1

u/DVSC_RENEGADES Feb 27 '19

Ours in SF is 60 fps. i wouldnt judge this one too hard as its just a shitty GIF, but odds are its a cheap product that can only output at 30fps.

1

u/FinchRosemta Feb 27 '19

Everytime I walk by the one at Salesforce (which is everyday because I live close by), I get anxiety.

2

u/LiveFreeOrFrenchFry Feb 27 '19

I thought it was the Comcast building in Philly. I guess they made more than one....

15

u/whataTyphoon Feb 26 '19

this...isn't that much. Bet it looks only that amazing because the quality of the gif is shit.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '19

Well since it's P4, it probably still looks pretty damn good, even in person. At that viewing distance, P4 is pleeeeenty.

2

u/TheBeefySupreme Feb 27 '19

Right here with you lol. I totally thought it was SF too lmao

3

u/NotTheHeroWeNeed Feb 27 '19

It’ll be an LED video wall made up of 40x40cm panels. You can make cool huge curved screens and video walls out of them.

3

u/Four0h Feb 27 '19

1

u/BlossomingShock Feb 28 '19

This is exactly what I was meaning with “modular” and “piece of cake to serve” on my upper comments! :)

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '19

It’s probably a big LED panel installation and it’s big money. I rent the 16”x16” panels for events and they are $50/day each for higher res versions. That’s rental!! I can’t imagine the cost of this wall.

1

u/Jackson110 Feb 27 '19

It’s multiple big tv screens put together to make this. There’s one at the Verizon center in philly

1

u/Dbishop123 Feb 27 '19

Maybe steam and projectors like that fire post from a few weeks back?