Analog Way Aquilon Drives Content for Salesforce Dreamforce 2025

Two linked Analog Way Aquilon RS6 drove big-screen content at the multi-day Salesforce Dreamforce 2025 in San Francisco, the world’s largest and most trusted AI event.  Sherman Patten, Lead Screen Switcher Operator for Salesforce Events, led the switcher team; he helms 15-20 US-based and three to eight international events for Salesforce annually. 4Wall Entertainment was the equipment and services provider. 

“At this event, the product that Salesforce sells was actually on the screen, so portraying that product in a seamless, smooth and controlled manner was super important,” says Josh Weisberg 4Wall’s Senior VP of Event Services.

Salesforce events demand absolute reliability, visual fidelity and operational speed.  Live demos, use of real devices and real-time interaction mean there is no margin for error.  The Aquilon RS6 met those demands while reducing system complexity, improving image quality and supporting extensive redundancy.  The result was a successful show using a modern, scalable video processing architecture that handled extreme input counts, complex layering, multiple destinations and live demo workflows with confidence.

A pair of Aquilon RS6 systems were linked to support high input counts and provide full redundancy; while a single RS6 was capable of driving the show, redundancy requirements meant linking two systems for full backup.

“Salesforce likes to have live demos; that’s the main focus for this client,” notes Sherman Patten.  “We had almost 52 inputs by the end of the show, everything with at least one backup.  There were 16 demo devices, eight primary and eight backup, including Apple iPhones, iPads and Macintosh laptops.”  Multiple destinations included LED walls, confidence monitors, broadcast feeds, recording feeds and multiviewers.

The Aquilon RS6 systems replaced older, multi-frame legacy systems which increased complexity and failure points.  Andrew Hood, part of the 4Wall live events show team, points out that the operator team “had just used the RS6 duet for a Target employee show with custom resolutions.  We would have needed many, many other brand’s frames to pull that off and a lot of distribution.  The Target event convinced Salesforce of [the RS6’s] capabilities, simplicity and cost [effectiveness].  And we believed in the box and what it could do.”

The Salesforce event’s live demo workflow featured real devices presented on stage with animated device “bezels.”  Multi-layer compositions had device content and graphics moving together; cascading animations and transitions happened across multiple presets.  Clean and dirty feeds were created simultaneously for the live audience, broadcast viewers and the show recording.  Redundant signal paths ensured instant recovery without audience awareness.

Patten and his team made heavy use of the RS6’s extensive layering resources.  Dedicated layers were assigned per demo device to avoid conflicts; alpha transparency and still handling supported complex compositions.  Patten cites the RS6’s ability to have “abundant layers that were easy to use, with cut and fills that were super clean.”

In addition, the Aquilon RS6 provided extensive multiviewer usage for operators, demo teams and engineering.  Live thumbnails inside the control interface allowed rapid troubleshooting while remote visibility into what was actually shown on screen reduced guesswork and response time.  “Being able to use remote viewing to see what should be on the screen was very helpful,” Patten says.

His team reports that outputs were cleaner and sharper than legacy platforms, and IMAG and content scaling were visibly improved.  Massive input and layering requirements were handled with room to spare while the linked-frame architecture simplified redundancy, and the use of fewer frames reduced complexity and failure points.

Operational confidence was also enhanced.  Abundant processing headroom allowed conservative, safety-first system design. Operators could anticipate issues and switch seamlessly, and the platform supported Salesforce’s expectation of flawless execution.  Flexibility was demonstrated by aux outputs used creatively for monitoring, downstage displays and composited views.  Additionally, the system layout demonstrated its adaptability as the show split into multiple rooms mid-event.

“The Aquilon RS6 successfully supported one of the most demanding enterprise live-event workflows in the industry,” concludes Iversen.  “The platform enabled the switcher team to deliver flawless live demos, seamless redundancy and failover, improved visual quality and confidence under extreme operational pressure, all while offering reduced system complexity.

“The event validated Aquilon as a primary processing platform for Salesforce-scale productions and positioned it as a long-term solution for future events.”