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Christie Enhances NASDAQ MarketSite Video Wall

NEW YORK, NY – (July 21, 2008) – Christie, a global leader in visual solutions for business, entertainment and industry, enhanced the iconic NASDAQ MarketSite Video Wall with the installation of 96 Christie TotalVIEW™ rear projection engines driven by 13 Vista Systems Spyders. The MarketSite Video Wall is located in NASDAQ’s Broadcast Studio in the heart of Times Square in New York City.  The 48-foot (14.6m) long video wall has become symbolic of the electronic market and features a split-level design enabling reporters to conduct reports from the floor and mezzanine levels. 

Christie rear projection engines will greatly enhance the brightness and clarity of the images on the MarketSite Video Wall and provide the highest level of reliability for 24/7 operation.  A network of Vista Systems Spyders processing the real-time content displayed on the wall, allows NASDAQ to configure multiple signal inputs to build dynamic presentations in a fast and efficient trading environment.

The Christie technology upgrade delivers an increase of over 50% in total pixel count from the previous wall, along with significant improvements in brightness and contrast.  Additionally, controlling all digital sources in and out with a crisp, clean digital signal path, the Vista Systems Spyders provide a dramatic performance upgrade along with quick programming using Vista advanced software.

“It's an honor to be selected for this project and to be working with such an innovative company as NASDAQ OMX,” says Zoran Veselic, vice president of Christie’s Visual Environments division.  “With the MarketSite being ‘the face and business center’, Christie enhancements have helped brighten their innovative Video Wall.”

The upgraded MarketSite Video Wall is now able to show a variety of sources including still and moving video plus flying windows of any size or number – including a span across the entire 48-foot lower-tier screen for a total pixel count of over 56 million.  For the lower tier, Christie provided 72 Christie TotalVIEW RPMX-D120U rear projection engines with XGA (1024 x 768) resolution and 40” anti-reflective high contrast wide-angle screens configured in an 18 x 4 curved array.

The upper mezzanine level features 24 Christie TotalVIEW RPMX-D120U rear projection engines with XGA (1024 x 768) resolution and 50” wide-angle screens in a 12 x 2 curved array.  The upper wall boasts an image 40 feet wide with a pixel count of well over 18 million.

The MarketSite Video Wall’s upper and lower tiers are driven by 13 Vista Systems Spyders. Despite the size of the wall, the Spyder offers one point of communication to control the entire display.  It controls windowing movement taking a source and panning and zooming within that source.  The Spyders also allow for window drop shadows and keying in a blue or green screen by cutting an image from one video source into a background image from another video source.

Clark Williams, vice president of windowing and compositing at Christie and president of Vista Systems, Inc. adds, “The Spyders not only provide improved wall performance but will allow NASDAQ and interested parties to achieve unprecedented image control and presentation.  Presenters will no longer be limited to one image per cube but can create large multi-million pixel images anywhere and everywhere on the wall.”

In addition, a new mini-wall, which serves as a backup studio in the second floor’s event space and press conference area, has been configured with Christie rear projection engines and two Vista Systems Spyders.  The mini-wall has eight Christie TotalVIEW RPMSP-D100U rear projection engines with SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) resolution configured in a 4 x 2 array.  It displays an 18.7-foot (5.7m) wide image composed of more than 11 million pixels across eight Christie CSP70 cubes.

About NASDAQ MarketSite
Built in 1999, NASDAQ MarketSite made its debut in the Millennium in Times Square where the first Market Open was held in January 2000. The concept behind the MarketSite studio was to develop an epicenter for financial and business news in the heart of Manhattan.

MarketSite rapidly became known as the face and information center of The NASDAQ Stock Market, the world's largest electronic stock market.

About Christie
Christie, a wholly owned subsidiary of USHIO, Inc., Japan, (JP:6925), is a leader in visual solutions for world-class organizations, offering diverse applications for business, entertainment, and industry. A leading innovator in film projection since 1929 and a pioneer in digital projection systems since 1979, Christie has an established global reputation as a total service provider and the world's single source manufacturer of a variety of display technologies and solutions.  With the acquisition of Vista Controls Systems, Corp., Christie offers the most complete and advanced solutions for cinema, live venues, control rooms, business presentations, training facilities, 3D and Virtual Reality, simulation and education as well as industrial and government environments.  For more information, visit www.christiedigital.com.