NEW ORLEANS – The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) 2012 annual meeting, held in New Orleans last month, drew nearly 8,000 visitors to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. In the lighting rig were 60 Elation Professional Platinum Beam 5R units. The fixture was chosen because its high output and strong beam definition could cut through thick video wash lights, said Scott Renick of Dodd Technologies.
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NEW ORLEANS – The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) 2012 annual meeting, held in New Orleans last month, drew nearly 8,000 messengers, who packed the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center for two days of worship, business meetings and conferences. More viewed the meeting via live online broadcasts.
Such a big event deserves “big” lighting. There was no shortage of that in New Orleans, thanks to Dodd Technologies, Inc. (of Pendleton, IN), the longtime provider of lighting, projection, rigging and soft goods for the SBC’s annual meeting.
To achieve a look in keeping with the magnitude of this year’s event, Dodd lighting director Andy Meggenhofen built the design around an appropriately big and bold light — the Platinum Beam 5R DMX aircraft landing-type moving head from Elation Professional. Sixty Platinum Beam 5R units were used in the truss and on the floor in a 224,000 sq. ft. auditorium in the Morial Center, primarily on the worship band stage.
The room, which has a seating capacity of 10,000, presented its own “bigness” issues as far as rigging was concerned. It features a ceiling with a gabled peak, which required a variable rigging steel height that soared from 28’ on the low end up to 65’ at the top of the peak.
Filling up such a cavernous space posed no problems for the Platinum Beam 5R. An extreme ACL effect, it produces a tight, narrow searchlight-type beam. Yet, the cETLus-approved unit is just half the size of a traditional ACL effect of comparable output and draws only 189 watts of electricity because of its Philips MSD Platinum 5R lamp.
The Platinum Beam 5R was chosen because its high output and strong beam definition could cut through thick video wash lights, said Scott Renick of Dodd Technologies. “The client gave our lighting team a lot of freedom in designing the lighting, provided it was respectful of the content,” said Renick. “Andy Meggenhofen has extensive experience working with the house of worship market and understands the reverence required of a lighting design for such events. One of the most important aspects of the design, and a great reason to use the Platinum Beam, was the ability to cut through an extremely bright video lighting wash. The event is broadcast live online, and the video team appreciated being able to discern the effect lighting through our video lighting wash.”
The Platinum Beam 5R is also equipped with a variety of effects. Among its many features are 12 dichroic colors, 8 rotating/indexing gobos, an 8-facet prism and a frost filter that diffuses its hard-edge 2.5°-angle beam, allowing it to do double duty as a hybrid beam/wash effect.
“The lighting team used the frost and prism effect to soften the look,” said Renick. “Those two features created some incredibly full lighting looks on the stage.” Electricians/Programmers for the event were James Lederman and David Seitz.
Renick said, “The video team loved the looks they created on screen, the production team loved the looks that the fixtures created on stage.”
Dodd Technologies, Inc. at 765-221-5010 or visit www.doddtechnologies.com
