Well, we are packing up to head down to this Summer's mural event being held in Arcola, Illinois. We will be joining together with approximately 140 of our fellow artists, to paint up another Midwestern town.
This year there are artists coming from New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, and several from Canada. Arcola has lined up 15 large-scale exterior murals for us to paint during this 4 day event.
At this year's event, my wife and I will not be leading a project. instead we will be helping our friends wherever we are needed the most. At last year's event, my wife and I were busy planning our wedding, so we were not able to help paint as much as we like. But this year, we can help as much as possible.
Earlier this year I decided to build a new stereo system for Walldog events. As long as I can remember, I've always loved to listen to music while I work. This of course has carried over to mural painting. So this year I finally pulled out all the stops and decided to build the system I've been thinking about for years.
If you're not familiar with mural painting or Walldog events, I will explain one of the first steps of the process to try and make more sense of my sound system idea.
The first night of a Walldog event, is generally set aside to project the art on the wall. We use overhead projectors with the art printed on clear transparencies. Recently, the city hosting the event turns off the street lights in order to make the projected images easier to see. We project and draw the images on to pre-primed white walls.
Not sure about you, but when I see a big white wall, my minds starts to tell me to put something on it.
After the projection process, we usually hang around and catch up with old and new friends. I always thought it would be fun to build a surround sound system with an on-board digital projector. I was finally able to find the components to make this idea a reality.
So, I spent the last couple of months designing and building my (somewhat portable) audio/video Walldog system.
Here is a couple pics of the unit...
This contraption of mine includes the following features...
1000 watt Panansonic Surround Sound Home Theater System (5 speakers, sub, amp)
The system plays DVD's upscaled to near HD, and includes an FM tuner.
An iPod dock built in with controls that show up either on the 7" LCD screen or on the projected image.
Can be hooked up to an iPad to play audio, video, slideshows, YouTube, and Netflix (when WiFi is available).
Includes a ViewSonic DLP digital projector mounted on a 4-way swivel base so we can project out the front, sides, or back. The projector unit is also mounted on slides so it can be removed and positioned on top of the system.
3-way video control switch to feed the different video sources.
A digital clock built in with dual temp displays....which includes a remote temp sensor for secondary temp readings. I can hang the remote sensor on (or locate it near our wall) to determine how hot the painting surface is.
Ground effects LED lighting and an LED "night light", both with on and off switches.
There is also a 12 volt cigarette lighter jack for cell phone and USB charging when needed?
All of this enclosed in a perforated steel structure with 4 Monopod legs and four tripod extension speaker mounts.
So, I will be trying to update the blog from Arcola's event with pictures. This all depends on the access to WiFi in the area. And how late I work into the night.
Till then....
