Ann: Revolution at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

[Jeffrey Reynolds]

I just got done revamping the old Metacard program running the Deep  
Link and Jellies shows in the auditorium of the Monterey Bay Aquarium  
to Revolution (it was MetaCard). The shows now are in all High  
Definition Video projected on a 16 foot by 9 foot screen and the  
images/video is absolutely stunning. The Revolution program provides  
over 400 HD video and still clips for the presenter to display to the  
audience to help interpret the live video being broadcast from ROVs  
in the bay. The system also provides notes to the presenter on the  
clips to help them answer audience questions.

The Deep link presentation system, while essentially the same concept  
over the last 16 years, has grown into an impressive array of  
hardware controlled by the system along with now being in HD  
resolution (uncompressed HD on a 4 terabyte server). It has also  
followed a historic litany of multimedia development systems,  
starting out being prototyped on the alpha version of colorize HC  
routines, to Toolbook (the installed system has had to be PC based  
all along), to MetaCard, and finally to Revolution. Revolution's  
TCPIP abilities allowed me to work on the debugging with my mac  
laptop sitting in the auditorium controlling things (installed  
control is all serial based), then just pop it over ot a PC app and go!

While you are at the RevCon try and stop by the aquarium to take in a  
show (and the aquarium). Unfortunately, they are running shows all  
day long now with the summer crunch so getting a Rev only glimpse  
didn't work out, but if you go up after the show there are usually a  
few minutes to get the presenter to let you take a peak at the Rev  
program running on their podium touch screen. Also be aware the  
Aquarium has expanded over the years and is hard to take in in a  
couple of hours unless you want to run. best to try and take it in  
for a couple of hours, take a break and come back later in the day to  
finish up. Wish i could be there for RevCon, but have be back in DC  
those dates.

cheers,

jeff

Jeffrey Reynolds
6620 Michaels Dr.
Bethesda, MD  20817
301.469.8562
jeff at siphonophore.com