DL-2 Collage Image Size

It all depends on your throw from the projectors to the surface.

How are away are the units? That will help determine the size.

Downstage truss,
Somewhere between 7m-11m to the front of the DL-2 lens changing on a daily basis.

Thanks C

Cormac,

You can download the lens calculator from Christie here, or use the online version:

www.christiedigital.co.uk/christie/tools/ChristieLensCalculator.aspx?region=AMEN

I use the "Advanced" view

Select either the LX-50 or LX-55 (depending on which one is inside your DL.2) from the dropdown list.

Then make sure you are using the "1.8-2.4:1" lens. This is the standard lens in all DL.2s

This should help you in figuring out differnt sizes from different throws.:)

Cool that helps a lot,
So how much do you guys subtract from the image size per fixture when using collage?
Would 10% per fixture be ok?

Regards Cormac

10% would be about right.

10% is a good "rule-of-thumb" as Scott has suggested.

It will be more if you are projecting at an extreme angle and have to do massive keystone correction.

I have found that using WYG is a great way to see image sizes if you have the time to build a quick model. It is accurate with the "zoom" tool as well.

The only thing to watchout for here is that when you eventually keystone it will be to the "smallest" corners.....so line up the "smallest" corners and make sure that covers your projection surface, knowing that the extra bits on the "larger" corners will be keystoned out. Then factor in the 10% overlap for the collage.

Hope this helps:)

Hi,
hope it's ok if i continue with a few more questions in this thread.
I am asking all questions here with the premise that i am using the latest software for DL-2 s which i think is v1.4 and have any necessary cable and hardware required to make it happen.

If i have a 3(w) x 1(H) collage i would in theory need any of my custom content to be 1648 x 471 resolution or thereabouts,so if i want to use the same piece of custom content but as a single image from each DL-2 i would need a resolution of 640 x 480,
Do i need to have two separate files in each fixture each with a different resolution to do this or can the fixtures use the higher resolution content and work with that.....2 types of content??

I understand the idea of graphic syncing fixtures,is there anything to look out for when using this feature.
I guess and stress guess that sync is quite important when using the collage functions of DL-2 fixtures to avoid any lag or shift in the display of the content or am i incorrect.

I understand the cable routing of and display of the camera functions so out of one DL-2 and into another DL- 2 via lots of blue box's to oversimplify,is graphic sync important for this also ?
Would i be recording it as a preset palette in my console and programming it with every cue-list...

Any user experience about using collage and ways to handle it on a day to day basis when touring.
Am i correct in saying that with a DL-2 this would be a ICBF palette so all masks included?

Any tips on updating collage palette's day to day on a tour.

Would be helpful if replies from users with experience of any or all of the above..that's you guys/girls from previous posts.

again thanks C

we found the quickest way to update the collage ( we have 12 DL3 on tour) was to make a preset cue with the collage pallette with a user made grid ( easier to see as the built in is too "fine") We were also projecting onto the Arena floor and used the hard edge instead which increased the size and also increased the brightness a bit. Record layer, global and movement at full. We changed the highlight to use just the movement intensity, that way you highlight just the movement which includes the Pan Tilt. Move it to the right position and then change to Global for the keystoning.
It was really quick which was good as we several collages plus a ton of exact positioned projections on objects. As console we had a maxxyz compact which worked fantastic with the DL3, except for the missing CITP function in the DL3 ;-)

As for graphic sync, we found it didn´t really work that good as it was making the videos glitch as they tried to keep in sync. For our purposes it was fine without

[quote=cormacjack]If i have a 3(w) x 1(H) collage i would in theory need any of my custom content to be 1648 x 471 resolution or thereabouts,so if i want to use the same piece of custom content but as a single image from each DL-2 i would need a resolution of 640 x 480,
Do i need to have two separate files in each fixture each with a different resolution to do this or can the fixtures use the higher resolution content and work with that.....2 types of content??

The native resolution of DL.2 is 1024x768, so this is the best resolution to use for a single fixture provided you have the Core-2 Duo motherboards, a RADEON 1900 or better, and the larger 320 GB HDDs since this roughly matches the first run DL.3 computers.

You can use the same file as the collage if you like, but there will be some distortion (in this case Y axis compression). It might be no big deal, but it depends on how "precise" your content needs to appear.

[quote=Clyde]As for graphic sync, we found it didn´t really work that good as it was making the videos glitch as they tried to keep in sync. For our purposes it was fine without

Sounds like you were not doing it correctly then...possibly syncing to the wrong fixture or layer.

Sync is working great now and is invaluable with Collage-ing.