NYE performances on Times Square’s Nivea Kiss and Countdown stages for ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve and NBC’s New Years Eve with Carson Daly included Taylor Swift, Train, Neon Trees, Carly Rae Jepsen, Psy, Yuri, The Voice winner Cassadee Pope, USO’s Liberty Bells and the Broadway cast of Million Dollar Quartet.
LD Paul Miller and programmer Paul Sonnleitner used Martin MAC Auras and Clay Paky Sharpys provided by 4Wall NY to light the Kiss and Countdown Stages, which also featured appearances by NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg and hosts including CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Mario and Courtney Lopez.
“We were able to get more variety across the performances and have a little more flash,” Miller said, crediting the gear for helping overcome obstacles ranging from power, site access and time constraints to inclement weather and the need to compete with Times Square’s sensory overload. “Everyone was really happy with the new look.” More details at http://www.plsn.me/VsRLIh.
Also in New York’s celebratory epicenter was AWB Design, providing a visual assist for MTV’s Times Square performances by Ke$ha, Sean Kingston, Ne-Yo and Conor Maynard, among others. The LMG Nashville-supplied gear included 22 Elation EPV762 MH moving head LED video panels.
Production designer Anthony Bishop of AWB collaborated with LMG’s Ken Gay to create the environment that worked for the live audience as well as for the cameras, shoe-horning the gear within a set that offered only 11.5 feet of headroom. More details at www.plsn.me/XND8ir.
On Rio’s not-quite-as-frosty Copacabana Beach in Brazil, new technologies animating live music performances included some of the 70,500 Pixel Tablets that Tait Technologies provided for the London Olympics — in this case, 11,000 — that were flanking the stage on a series of nets. More details at www.plsn.me/TlR86M.
For a Widespread Panic show in Charlotte, NC’s Time Warner Arena, LD Paul Hoffman used new gear including Bandit Lites-supplied GLP impression X4s along with auld “workhorses,” Vari*Lite VL3000 spots.
Hoffman kept the panic to a minimum despite a perfect recipe for angst: the band has a 350-song repertoire; there was no set list in advance; Hoffman was learning the ropes on a console new to him (grandMA2); the band was making its first foray into video; and, since the band was on hiatus for most of 2012, Hoffman needed lots of new looks from scratch.
Along with the console and Martin Maxedia media server to feed content to Mirage video panels, Bandit provided GRN LED Pars, GRN LED Battens and Clay Paky Sharpys for the event. More details at www.plsn.me/W7TjcE.
In Nashville, Bassnectar returned to Bridgestone Arena, with Michael Smalley’s visuals making the most of a new in-the-round stage setup. Christie Lites once again supplied the lighting, with a rig centered on Martin MAC III Profiles, the newer MAC III AirFX and Clay Paky Sharpys. LMG’s video assist included the 11.25mm LED panels surrounding the DJ table on the circular stage and a dozen 18.75mm LED screens extending out from the center scoreboard screen.
In Las Vegas, PLSN columnist Vickie Claiborne, who is also a product specialist at PRG, used Avolites’ Ai media server to map projected content onto set elements spanning a total 230 feet in width within the Aria hotel’s Bristlecone Ballroom for a big NYE 2013 bash that included eight production numbers, a DJ, 14-piece band and 48 dancers. More details at www.plsn.me/Xt7sR4.
Also in Vegas, Chaos Visual Productions rang in 2013 with video support for big-name acts on the Las Vegas Strip including The Killers and Red Hot Chili Peppers at The Chelsea Ballroom in The Cosmopolitan Hotel and by Beyoncé at the Wynn Hotel. Chaos also gave an assist to Dick Clark Productions’ Rockin’ New Year’s Eve. More details at www.plsn.me/14iGboL.
