NEW YORK – The set for Comedy Central's The Colbert Report has been updated with the first installation of Christie MicroTiles. The new set features 41 Christie MicroTiles arranged as three horizontal displays, in 1×4, 1×5 and 1×4 arrays underneath Colbert's desk, and in four angled 1×7 vertical columns along the backdrop. The tiles display high definition video and graphics created for the show. "The best part about being the first show to use the Christie MicroTiles is that we are the first. We love being first," said Meredith Bennett, co-executive producer of The Colbert Report. Videofilm Systems, Inc., Bridgeport, Conn., collaborated with design firm Jack Morton to specify and install the Christie MicroTiles for the show.
"After Giselle Vogel, our VP, and I saw the MicroTiles demo at InfoComm ‘09 we were taken by the technology and knew we had to include it on the set of The Colbert Report," said Dale Cihi, engineering designer at Videofilm. "Real-time color correction and off-access viewing were the primary requirements we had to overcome, and Christie MicroTiles definitely met the criteria. It's the kind of product that sells itself once you see it. It definitely has the ‘wow' factor."
Jim Fenhagen, SVP of Design at Jack Morton and chief designer of The Colbert Report set, credited the Christie MicroTiles for their combination of DLP with LED illumination.
"We found that in updating the set, the brightness factor was crucial, and we really wanted to include strips of video into the redesign," Fenhagen said. "The set had to be amplified visually without being too distracting, while still maintaining its unique signature on air. Christie MicroTiles were perfect. They fit seamlessly into the existing space while providing the best color matched graphics and video without any pixelation."
Cihi added, "In creating the MicroTiles, Christie implemented all my favorite technologies. I would have chosen the same screen, housing unit, light engine, optics and 4×3 aspect ratio…it's the kind of all-in-one technology you dream of.
"Given this was the first time the technology was going to appear on air, we received phenomenal support from Christie's after-sales team. Not only is the product so well designed and easily implemented, knowing that Christie stands by its product made us feel very comfortable with using it right out of the box.
"More often, we are building ‘green‘ into our solutions," Cihi continued. "With Christie MicroTiles, our installs use less electricity and operate longer with lower cost of ownership. This is as close to ‘set-it-and-forget-it' technology as you can get."
"Set design is a very competitive business, and to stay on top you have to find creative and renewable ways to use the technology you have," Fenhagen noted. "This is what we love so much about MicroTiles. Its innovative media easily adapts for entertainment spaces. We can stack them the way we want and repurpose them later to create a totally new design. The ease in which the tiles went in was also very accommodating; we didn't have to redo the existing columns."
With their narrow profile, Christie MicroTiles can fit in tight spaces, making them well-suited to space-constrained studios. "The possibilities are endless in terms of what they can do. The added advantage is that HiDef cameras love MicroTiles. They achieve 115 percent NTSC broadcast standard and PAL color gamut – no other display can do this," said Mitch Rosenberg, director of sales of Christie's Visual Environments Display Systems division. "MicroTiles have an amazing visual impact and are fun to work with…it's as easy as…design, lock and play."
For more information, please visit www.microtiles.com and www.christiedigital.com .
