Arista has announced an all-in-one system for projection mapping, comprising a video processing computer and transmitter/receiver cluster that can accommodate up to 16 HDBaseT transmitters.
The system is pre-configured and only requires connecting and disconnecting etherCON cables to and from the projectors before and after the event.
It integrates a 4U rack mount computer named QuadMosaic. It is powered by an Intel Xeon 10-core processor and can be upgraded to a 22-core processor if more CPU power is required. The system is populated with 128 GB DDR4-2400 system memory and can be upgraded to 512GB. Five swappable 2TB SATA HDDs are installed and configured in a RAID-5 configuration with one hot spare SATA HDD. This RAID configuration provides a total of 6TB storage capacity and maximum data protection to prevent any data loss due to HDD failure. High throughput NVMe storage for enhanced performance is optionally available. Two NVMe drives are installed in RAID-1 for boot drive redundancy with four NVMe drives configured in RAID-5 for working space storage. Using NVMe drives for boot drive and working space storage increases speed during video rendering.
The second major section of the system is Arista’s ARD-5816-A07-TX HDBaseT Cluster that houses up to 16 HDBaseT transmitter blades. Each transmitter blade is located on the front of the unit and is hot swappable. There are up to 16 I/O blades located at the rear of the unit and each I/O blade is hot swappable. Three types of cables facilitate connection to the I/O blades: DP, HDBaseT, and 10/100 LAN. There are 16 DP video outputs from the video processing computer connected to the DP video input of the ARD-5816 I/O blades. Minimum lengths of DP cable help reduce system cable clutter—resulting in better cable management and streamlined maintenance.
Each ARD-5816 HDBaseT transmitter is integrated with a 10/100 LAN port. A 24-port gigabit Ethernet switch and an additional 8-port etherCON patch panel option is available for using HDBaseT integrated projectors. The 24-port gigabit Ethernet switch is installed at the rear side of the rack and a total of 16 10/100 LAN ports from the ARD-5816 are connected to the Ethernet switch. The remaining eight Ethernet ports of the gigabit switch are connected to the etherCON patch panel via rear RJ45 connectors. This configuration option provides front accessible Ethernet connections to control up to sixteen HDBaseT integrated projectors. This configuration option also provides projector control via the same HDBaseT cable that is connected to each HDBaseT integrated projector.
Arista’s Video Projection Mapping Turnkey System comes with two 8-port etherCON patch panels. A total of 16 HDBaseT outputs are connected to the etherCON patch panels via rear RJ45 connectors. Neutrik etherCON ruggedised, lockable RJ45 connectors provide robust cable connectivity for data transfer in harsh and demanding projection mapping environments. The front accessible etherCON patch panels provide a total of 16 HDBaseT connections.