LOS ANGELES — For the fifth year, Video Applications, Inc. (VAI) provided the technical design, production management, video production, projection, audio, lighting and crewing for the Milken Institute Global Conference. The conference, now in its 12th year, was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. It drew 3,000 VIPs and 500 presenters and panelists to address global social and economic challenges using free market thinking. Speakers included Steve Wynn, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limbaugh.
Working with the Milken foundation’s creative services department, the VAI team led by Richard Bevan created technical staging packages for 17 locations. This included video, projection, audio, signal distribution and lighting for the event.
The project required five semis of gear, a total of 112 VAI and other crew members, four months of the planning and production meetings and support for a total 151 sessions that involved over 500 presenters and panelists in 15 rooms delivering 226 hours of content captured on 16 DVCPro video tape recorders and nine audio recorders — all installed in a day-and-a-half.
The size of the crew was “typical for this event,” Bevan said, of the three-day conference. Each of the 151 sessions “were captured on video or audio record and later made available on the Web. We also streamed most sessions live to the web, as well. Video Applications installed a multi-point fiber optic system to support simulcasts from the International Ballroom, throughout the hotel; in addition to supporting live broadcast feeds for FOX Business News and Bloomberg Television.”
The International Ballroom was the largest of the conference’s five main keynote rooms, all of which were supported with VAI’s multi-camera I-Mag and recording gear. Seven smaller rooms were equipped for audio recording only. Four of the rooms were also simulcast to overflow rooms.
VAI also provided video, audio, and lighting to the outdoor Pavilion Tent, which acted as a lounge area and offered a feed from the general sessions to an overflow crowd, and hosted an evening presentation by motion-picture director John Landis.
“Since being asked to support this event in 2005, each year has built upon the success and experience of the prior events,” Bevan said. “Despite a continual growth in the size and complexity of the show and the many challenges posed by a tough schedule and an undersized venue, the 2009 Global Conference was the smoothest yet.”
Lawrence Lesser, senior vice president of Creative Services, credited VAI for supporting the event “flawlessly.”
For more information visit www.videoapps.com.
