"We chose Electrosonic for their expertise and proven track record, to create the largest permanently installed videowall in the country. Our system was designed to enhance the positive experience our customers would encounter when entering the huge reception entrance. And it gives conventioneers, corporations, and business around the world a perfect video billboard to introduce themselves to the multitude of guests and visitors who journey to the MGM daily," says Coccaro. "With C-THROUGH™ software, there are no limitations placed on our creative talent, allowing us to constantly bring new and exciting visions to the wall every day. Electrosonic is an innovator of visual communications and has brought the MGM a magnificent creative tool that will carry us into the twenty-first century."

The Latest: An Interactive Video Puzzle

The newest and most interactive videowall at the hotel is located in MGM's gaming room. The impressive 4x6 ProCube video display is aptly named "The Big Picture" - and it attracts nearly as much attention as the games themselves. The 24 monitors are arranged to form one gigantic video puzzle that's tied into the real-time action of a bank of slot machines. As players drop coins into the slots, another piece of the puzzle is revealed. The player whose coins open the last piece wins, with a grand prize of up to 40,000 coins.

In spite of its complexity, the display requires no operator interface. The entire sequence is automatically integrated by Electrosonic's PicBloc 3 image processing system, which controls five CRVs and an external LDP from timecode. Each new puzzle sequence is initiated when the videowall controller receives a signal on the slot machine status from the hotel's Acres bonus server. Commands for audio and lighting effects are sent to the computer with Electrosonic's Windows®-based C-Through software, and then forwarded to a 200-disc CD changer and other peripheral equipment.

"The whole thing runs by itself 24-hours a day and has been completely trouble-free," says Andrew Behar, the project's producer. " I'd recommend Electrosonic Systems to any video producer."