"We've always implemented hardware revisions unannounced as a matter of course but the gains from i7 are too significant to be seen as a progression ; it's more of a milestone" says James Ross Heron from Green hippo. "Several other revisions have coincided with the new software perfectly and users will see a quantifiable performance gain, especially in jobs utilising our built in encoder and split media rendering such as UberPan projects."
Johan West of West Lighting, Finland recently received shipment of an i7 based machine and is completely converted. "The differences between the previous HD and the i7 HD are remarkable. It's so much faster especially with regards to media decoding. It's given Hippotizer the edge in the server world and it's pretty amazing what you can do with it. It's opened up host of new possibilities for what I can do with these servers."
Other features in Hippotizer 3.0.14 software include support for EMS' iVu4 2x2 video wall controllers allowing two of these devices to be driven by the outputs of a Hippotizer HD providing eight screen feeds of 1024 x 768 each. Used in conjunction with the latest VideoMapper plugin, the machines can freely place and rotate any of the outputs within the playback canvas and hence gives tremendous freedom to design and deliver new staging concepts with reduced hardware costs.
From 1 May all Hippotizer HD machines will ship with i7 processors and for those customers that already own a Hippotizer HD V3 an upgrade path will be offered, allowing them to take full advantage of the new hardware at a reduced price. Green Hippo are also offering a global trade-in offer for older machines, so even customers with V2 units can benefit from the latest technology at a recession-busting price with additional discounts offered on any units traded in for new i7 machines.
"These gains are too great to limit them to future owners so we've decided to allow existing users to share in the performance gains via trade-in. We think it's only fair that those who've championed our products should share in the ability to have Hippotizers fly on their shows." says Heron.
(Jim Evans)
