Chicago’s luxury Hotel Sax has chosen a Vista Systems Spyder to power a videowall comprised of 36 16x9 plasma screens located just outside its high-tech, fourth-floor conference center. The system grabs the attention of executives and conference-goers with images ranging from company logos and promos, to client-created content.

“We use the videowall capabilities to sell corporate groups on customized arrival experiences, presentation options and mood-setting experiences,” explains Hotel Sax director of marketing Adam Kaplan. “The technology enables us to really tailor our conference center for customers.”

Hotel Sax goes beyond downtown Chicago meeting rooms to offer a floor entirely devoted to meetings and events. The state-of-the-art spaces are designed to promote strategizing and brainstorming in an artistic yet calming environment. Upon exiting the fourth-floor elevators, guests are greeted by The Hub, an arrival space and meeting touch point fashioned around a semi-circular wall where the videowall is located. Guests can take in the wall from a circular banquette in front of the installation.

Hotel Sax AV director, Matt Garikes, cites the Spyder’s ability to display a variety of content on the videowall. “We can go online and grab images, bookend a promo and add flying logos,” he reports. “Our sources are two PCs and four DVDs so we can feed the Spyder anything from QuickTime and Windows Media files to DVD content. And when we don’t have a conference in-house, we can use the videowall to promote the hotel and Chicago. We’ve got promo reels and clips from Chicago-themed movies like ‘The Blues Brothers’ and ‘Ferris Bueller.’”

The videowall, whose 36 plasma screens have a 3200x600 pixel space, is configured as four 3x3 contiguous walls, which can operate as a single display surface or four smaller walls. The 6-input Spyder runs Vista Advanced processing which handles the content configuration and display.

“I love the Spyder,” says Garikes. “Vista’s complimentary training on Spyder opened up a whole new world to me – it helped me really maximize the applications. In addition to fantastic training, Vista has also provided great service. What could be better than a terrific system with good people to back it up.”