Published
The SMPTE Media Technology Summit is where the people who set the standards for film and TV meet. In 2024 we put the main LED wall in its ballroom, sponsored in the name of Gloshine, the panel maker. The room gave us a narrow space, a lot of height, and doors right behind the wall.
At a glance
- Event
- SMPTE Media Technology Summit 2024 and SMPTE Awards Gala
- Venue
- Ray Dolby Ballroom, Ovation Hollywood, Los Angeles
- Dates
- October 21–24, 2024, gala on October 24 (load-in from October 19)
- Our role
- LED wall and processing, sponsored in Gloshine’s name; our own crew and equipment
- LED
- Gloshine MV Pro 2.6, 7680 Hz refresh
- Size
- 5 m wide × 6 m high (16.4 × 19.7 ft), 120 cabinets, portrait
- Resolution
- 1920 × 2304
- Processing
- NovaStar MX40 Pro
- Structure
- Free-standing: four truss towers, ballasted base, rear braces
- Crew
- Six
The brief
SMPTE, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, holds its Media Technology Summit in Hollywood every year, and closes it with the Awards Gala. In 2024 we arranged to sponsor the summit’s main LED wall under the name of Gloshine, whose panels we use, and supplied it with our own crew and equipment.
Our part was the LED wall and its processing. Lighting and sound in the room were not ours.
Have a project in mind? Send us the details, or call.
Challenge 01
Narrow, very tall, and doors behind it
The space for the wall was not wide, but it was tall, so the wall went up rather than across: 5 m wide and 6 m high, 10 cabinets across and 12 high.
Right behind it were doors. Nothing could be fixed to the wall, so the screen had to stand on its own. We built a structure of four truss towers on a base of truss and deck, weighed it down with ballast, and braced it from behind. The cabinets hang between the towers.
Six meters of LED, held up by nothing but its own frame.
For the SMPTE Media Technology Summit 2024 (October 21–24) and the SMPTE Awards Gala on its last evening, in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood, PixelPro Productions supplied, built and ran the main LED wall, sponsored in the name of Gloshine. The wall is 5 m wide and 6 m high (about 16.4 × 19.7 ft): 120 Gloshine MV Pro 2.6 cabinets, 1920 × 2304 pixels at 7680 Hz, on NovaStar MX40 Pro processing. There were doors behind it, so it could not be fixed to the wall: it stands on its own structure of four truss towers on a ballasted base, braced from behind, built from a scissor lift by a crew of six. The same wall carried the summit sessions by day and the gala that closed the event.
Challenge 02
Twelve rows, from a scissor lift
At six meters, every row above the first few was hung from a scissor lift. We brought the wall up a row at a time, with every cabinet showing its port and position on a test card so that each one was in the right place before the next row went on.
Once all 120 cabinets were in, the whole wall went to white to check the color, then to test content.
Challenge 03
One wall, a summit by day and a gala by night
The summit sessions and the gala were in the same room. By day the wall carried the summit’s sessions; on the last evening it carried the Awards Gala, with the room reset around it.
We ran the processing for the whole event.
The result
- A 5 × 6 m LED wall, standing on its own frame, in front of the room’s doors.
- 120 Gloshine MV Pro 2.6 cabinets, 1920 × 2304, on NovaStar MX40 Pro.
- One wall for the whole event: summit sessions and the Awards Gala.
- Built and run by our own crew of six, on our own equipment.
How we run LED and crew for events is on our event AV production page.
The same panels are in our rental stock: see LED screen rental.
Questions event planners ask
Can an LED wall stand on its own without being fixed to the room?
Yes. At the SMPTE Media Technology Summit 2024 in Hollywood there were doors behind the wall, so nothing could be fixed to the room. PixelPro built a 5 × 6 m LED wall on four truss towers on a ballasted base, braced from behind, and hung the cabinets between the towers.
How tall can a ground-stacked LED wall be?
It depends on the structure under it. At the SMPTE Media Technology Summit 2024 PixelPro built a portrait LED wall 6 m high and 5 m wide, 120 Gloshine MV Pro 2.6 cabinets, on its own truss towers with ballast and rear braces, working from a scissor lift.
Can one LED wall serve both conference sessions and an awards gala?
Yes, in the same room. At the SMPTE Media Technology Summit 2024 the same 5 × 6 m wall in the Ray Dolby Ballroom carried the summit sessions by day and the SMPTE Awards Gala on the last evening, on NovaStar MX40 Pro processing.
