Martin’s Maxedia Digital Media Composer was used on one of Belgium’s biggest televised musical events of 2005, the TMF Awards. Held at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp this past fall and broadcast on Belgian-Dutch TV network TMF (The Music Factory), the show’s visual elements included a combination of lighting and video effects designed by independent Belgian LD Michiel Milbou.

Besides controlling 73 PixelLine LED fixtures, the Maxedia was used to pixel map 24 automated lights located inside set-cubes on stage. Through DMX merge-channels a seamless crossfade was done from the ArtNet input of the Maxedia to the video pixel mapping of the Maxedia output. A total of 11 DMX universes were pixel mapped on the Maxedia during the four hour live broadcast event.

“The Maxedia gave me the opportunity to integrate the whole set in one ‘picture,’ commented Michiel. “I used, as well, a large high resolution LED wall and custom built Mipix elements, and together with the different light fixtures it became one big display. And that was the general idea!”

Lighting was supplied by Phlippo Showlights N.V. with operators supplied by Painting with Light. Lighting Op was Dimi Theuwissen with Jimmy Stas handling the Maxedia.

The Maxedia can be used in combination with any other console or as a stand-alone unit. It utilizes the same fixture libraries and patch environment as the Martin Maxxyz controller meaning the patch showfile is compatible between the two products, which makes workflow even quicker.

Any DMX fixture, including moving lights with CMY or RGB channels, can be used for pixel mapping with Maxedia. Maxedia merges the ArtNet in/out and filters the CMY/RGB channels out of the fixture to control it. The other DMX channels remain unaffected and are still controlled by the lighting desk. The fixtures are placed into a 2D video output map where each video pixel is then mapped automatically to the corresponding DMX fixture. When the Maxedia outputs the video, the corresponding RGB values of the mapped pixels are real-time rendered on the DMX fixtures as well.