BOSTON — While Boston was in the middle of two blizzards and record-breaking snowfall, preparations were happening for the 50th Anniversary of Education First (EF). Producer Michael Wasserman (MPW) turned to Seabrook, NH-based Port Lighting Systems for an assist with the visuals for the multi-faceted celebration.
More details form Port Lighting Systems (www.portlighting.com):
EF is an international education company focusing on language, academics and cultural experience. EF is the “The World Leader in International Education” with 40,500 employees across 107 countries.
The 50th Anniversary Celebration started on Thursday night with a 360-degree view of Boston from the 52nd Floor of the Prudential Center, at the Sky Walk Observatory. A “Day with World Leaders” general session was held on Friday in the Auditorium of the Hynes Convention Center with influential speakers from around the world. That evening, VIP guests attended a party at the Delta Hangar at Boston Logan Airport. Here the Port Lighting team (Karim Badwan — Project Manager) lit the hangar with over 550 moving light fixtures, accenting five areas, each having a different geographic theme relevant to the company’s history.
The celebration continued on Saturday evening with the Golden Gala at the Hynes Convention Center. The concept of the celebration was to immerse the guests in the four classical elements. Each segment of the evening was dedicated to Earth, Water, Fire or Wind, transitioning with a video and live performance to mark the arrival of each course of the dinner. The performances included musical, dance and Bollywood acts on a center circle stage and side stage, as well as twelve silk aerials rigged from moving winches.
The producer – Michael Wasserman (MPW, inc), came to Port Lighting Systems, located in Seabrook, NH, with a vision of the guests at the Golden Gala being completely immersed in the environments and locations that are important to EF. They thought large scale video would be the best way to do this, so Senior Project Manager – Kyle Stetson and Lighting Designer — Steve Bearse (both of Port Lighting) designed the 128’ wide x 31’ high surround screen and lighting package to fit in the space. Keeping the screens as large as possible, while avoiding people’s heads on the center stage, and the lighting rig above with projection was critical. Kyle and Steve worked in Vectorworks 2015 to look at every angle of the projection in 3D, to determine maximum screen size and exact trim heights of all of the trusses in the venue. The screens were designed with custom offset corner blocks, hiding the vertical truss (which usually shows through the muslin fabric with front projection) that allowed for an almost seamless look to the room at the corners. Projectors were placed in 12 locations around the room on scaffolding under the screens, behind black drape. Small holes were cut in the drape to allow the projector lenses to stick out, while hiding the large body of the Barco 26k projectors.
During the main course of dinner, custom panoramic images showcasing a variety of spectacular locations that are affiliated with EF were rotated through on the screens. During transitions between courses, 3-5 minute “corporate” videos were played in the wide format aspect. These videos highlighted important moments in the EF history. All of the imagery on the screen was driven by five d3 Servers with an auto switching, running backup. The d3 Servers also took in switcher feed from 7 camera sources to include iMag feed for the keynote and the performances. Since the dinner and performances were completely surrounded by video, it allowed every guest to have the same view of imag and scenic video backdrop throughout the evening.
Coordinating with all of the video, images and performances were hundreds of lighting cues that transformed the room using color and texture from the warmth of the rainforest to the frigid peaks of the Alps. The lighting rig was designed to be efficient in fixture quantity, yet still have full coverage of the room, aisles and multiple stages with layers of color and texture wash. To add dimension to space the tables, which were made of custom frosted plexiglass covered in white satin fabric, were underlit with 2 Cube Echo battery LEDs – allowing color changes which coordinated with the images and videos on the screen.
The collaboration of multiple production and labor companies allowed this show to be hung and focused in a short amount of time. It was a large amount of equipment (especially video) with a lot of layers of truss to put into a smaller Exhibition Hall, but thanks to the extensive experience of the production staff, we were able to work despite of the storm and get the show running in time for the tight rehearsal schedule. These wide screen format screens seem to be more popular with Port Lighting’s clients recently who want their branding and message show in an immersive environment and with this show Port Lighting was able to prove video scaled to this size possible and effective, and hopefully gives other clients some ideas for future events.
EF 50th Anniversary Gear/Crew List
Hynes Convention Center Hall D
Lighting Gear List (partial):
(52) Martin MAC III Performance
(48) Martin MAC 2K Wash XB Beam
(24) Robe Pointe
(6) Clay Paky Sharpy Wash
(5) Martin Mac Viper Profile
(8) Martin Mac Aura
(8) Martin Mac 101 RGB
(16) Ultratech Ice Jet Cryo
(200) Eternal Lighting Cube Echo (table underlighting)
(2) MA2 Full Size
(2) MA2 NPU
Video Gear List (partial):
(4) D3 4×4 Media Servers
(24) Barco HDF-W26 Projectors
(4) Custom Muslin cyc – 31’ h x 128’ w
Rigging Gear List (partial):
(68) 1 ton CM Motors
(32) 1/2 ton CM Motors
(907’) 20.5” Silver Truss
(195’) 12” Black Truss
(802’) 12” Silver Truss
Aerialist Rigging List (partial)
(12) DW-V2 lift winches
(1) Pegasus control console
Hall D Production Crew:
Producer: Michael Wasserman (MWPI, inc.)
Creative Director: Art Corriveau
Production Designer/Technical Director: Kyle Stetson (Port Lighting)
Production Manager: Kevin Fuller
Lighting Designer: Steve Bearse (Port Lighting)
Rigging Supervisor: Russ Jones (JCALPRO)
Rigging Crew Chief: Pat Ryan (JCALPRO)
MA2 Programmer: Tyler Troffater
Port Lighting Technicians: Josh Rowe, Kristie Woodard
Screen Installation Supervisor: Rolando Torres
Moving Light Technicians: Ron Kuszmar, John Beaulieu
Video Project Manager – Matt Geiser
EIC – David Pryke
Video Director – Bill Lawler
Projectionists – Sven Furberg, David Kuss
d3 Programmer – Kyle Bjordahl (Lucid Creative)
EF Director of Editorial – Jeff Sias
EF Video Producer – Brian Lemieux
Aerialist Rigging Supervisor – Andrew Wilkinson (USR)
Aerialist Rigging Supervisor – Joe McGeough (Foy)
Aerialist Rigging Supervisor -Perry Fertwig (Foy)
Aerialist Rigger – Dan McGeough (Foy)
Pegasus Programmer – Ryan Mcalpine (Foy)
Staging – Eric Frishman (USR)
Lighting and Screens provided by: Port Lighting Systems
Additional Rental Lighting Equipment: Mainlight
Video Projection Provided by: Ice9 Productions
Rigging Equipment and Labor provided by: JCALPRO, inc.
Aerialist Rigging Equipment provided by: Flying by Foy
Custom and Stock Staging and Hydraulic Lift provided by: United Staging and Rigging
Screens custom built by: Rose Brand
