Watchfire Signs Installs Video Wall for New York School’s Performing Arts Center
Pioneer Central School District in Yorkshire, New York, has unveiled an upgraded performing arts center, which includes an 18-foot-wide by 49-foot-tall digital video wall backdrop made by LED screen maker Watchfire Signs , according to a press from the Liberation company.
The 2.4 millimeter high-resolution video wall is located outside the Broadway theater district in New York City.
Pioneer Central’s 1,200-seat performing arts center is used by both the school district and community organizations. The district serves 2,500 students.
“Many of our facilities are considered among the best in the area,” Benjamin Halsey, superintendent of the Pioneer Central School District, said in the statement. “Families in the area do not have easy access to other enrichment activities, so we felt it was important to provide the best facilities for dance, music and theater performances.”
The original stage for the performing arts program was designed without a “flight space”, an area above the stage where stage crews raise and lower curtains, sets and other effects, which limited what teams could do with mobile props. To solve the problem, the school sought to raise the roof above the auditorium as well as install a video board backdrop.
“Cost-wise, the video card was more advantageous,” Halsey said in the release. “We also felt it was the future of the performing arts, and it gave us another avenue to teach students a new skill.”
Convergent Technologies Design Group, an engineering firm involved in the project and specializing in audiovisual, telecommunications and acoustic services, selected Watchfire for the project. The backdrop exceeds 4k resolution, higher than most TV screens, according to the release.
“It was important to specify the technology that students would encounter in a studio environment upon graduation,” Paul Corraine, director of Convergent Technologies Design Group, said in the release. “The district is very progressive in teaching students how to generate video wall content, setting them on a career path after high school.”
The video wall is financed by the schools’ capital reserves and public school construction funds. Others involved in the project include M&E Engineering and Jones Architects.
