Green Hippo’s new Hippotizer MX Series media servers were front and center at this year’s WWE WrestleMania, delivering 4K live and pre-rendered content across a massive array of LED screens and ribbons.
The two-night WrestleMania event, livestreamed globally on Netflix, drew a packed crowd of 65,000 at Allegiant Stadium. Eight Hippotizer Kasai MX servers—distributed in North America by ACT Entertainment—joined 12 Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 and two Karst+ MK2 servers to drive visuals throughout Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. The Kasai MX, a 2U, 10-bit video playback server, supports two 4K outputs and Genlock, making it ideal for large surfaces requiring multi-output sync.
“I had a demo of the new MX Series at LDI last year and was impressed by the performance advances and hardware upgrades,” said Tony Thompson, project manager at Upstaging. “The Kasai MX Media Server can replace two of my Boreal+ MK2 Media Server on a show when using 4K output to HD Splitter outputs, which is great for using less rack space. The better performance and solid reliability are great as well. Green Hippo’s forward thinking on where the industry is going and now offering us the required options in the product path is paramount to us delivering successful events.”
Upstaging supplied all Hippotizer servers, handled system design and integration, and provided onsite technical support. NEP Screenworks supplied the LED, while WWE and Possible provided content. The media server team also included a dedicated system technician to manage setup and integration across teams.
More than 20 LED display areas were installed, including a YesTech 3mm Stage Fascia (11520×640) and Balcony Fascia (10496×768), Allegiant Stadium upper (13344×448) and lower ribbons (13856×448), along with Ring Skirts, LED barricades, an LED ramp, and tower structures made with ROE Carbon 5 and Carbon 3 panels.
“The Kasai MX media servers handled all the 4K elements for the show,” Thompson said. “The Boreal+ MK2s were on HD duty, and the Allegiant Stadium House LED Boards. “All of the Media Servers proved to be the best option then it came to reliability, flexibility, and workflow. Hippotizer’s content management system and Zookeeper is the biggest help to overcome challenges. And then the flexibility of VideoMapper allowed us to get creative to maximize physical outputs.”
Chris Keene, WWE media server programmer, praised the performance of the Hippotizer platform during the fast-paced production.
“The impact of the Hippotizer MX Series at WrestleMania can’t be overstated. We did massive amounts of transition work, presetting and crossfading tons of layers. With Hippotizer, it’s simple and direct. We used more layers than we would like sometimes for processing, but the Hippotizers handled the challenge without a problem.”
Keene added that Hippotizer’s stability enabled efficient programming across a large media server network.
“The thing that always impresses me most is the ability of Hippotizer Media Servers to be so solid – they’re true workhorses. We’re constantly syncing, encoding, swapping clips in the map, and all the while playback is never interrupted. At WrestleMania, we ask a lot from the Media Servers. The Hippotizers make it possible to manage the workflow by being solid and not crashing. Constantly syncing hundreds of gigs across a network of 22 media servers could be a bottleneck in the process of programming the show, instead it is what makes it possible.”
WrestleMania 2024 concluded with John Cena defeating Cody Rhodes to become a record-breaking seventeen-time world champion.
