NEW YORK – Scharff Weisberg provided AV support for producers KCD Inc. for a memorial service for Christo's wife and artistic collaborator, Jeanne-Claude, who passed away in November. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, born on the same day in 1935, collaborated on famous, large-scale and temporary works of art over a period of 51 years. These included Running Fence in California's Sonoma and Marin Counties, the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris and The Gates in New York's Central Park.
With more than 2,200 invited guests attended the memorial, several areas in the museum needed to be outfitted with AV equipment to accommodate the crowd. The Boathouse in Central Park was also set aside for an overflow of guests and for the press. In an effort to ensure that no guests felt as though they relegated to a less important venue, KCD needed Scharff Weisberg to provide top-quality pictures and sound.
The memorial program originated in the museum's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, where 708 guests were seated. Scharff Weisberg provided equipment for the three-camera HD shoot, recorded on Sony HDCAM. The HD video feed was sent to the house projector and routed via fiber to the Temple of Dendur, which accommodated another 694 people, and to the Great Hall entrance space, where latecomers could view the proceedings. The video signal was also sent to an HD satellite truck parked outside the museum, which beamed the simulcast to another 700-plus guests in the Boathouse. The memorial was also uploaded to the Internet for live streaming.
The Temple of Dendur displayed I-Mag of the memorial on two 8-by-14-foot Barco NX-4 LED walls using 4mm indoor LED display technology, which were set up on the north and south sides of the Temple. A secondary display, provided so every guest had a clear sightline, consisted of a 100-inch Panasonic plasma screen placed in front of the Temple arch.
In the Boathouse a Christie 10K-M projector displayed I-Mag of the memorial on a 7-by-11-foot screen. Seven 42-inch NEC plasma screens and two 61-inch NEC plasma screens, all with 1080i display, were on hand to ensure visibility. Scharff Weisberg also supplied a second Meyer distributed sound system to the venue.
Following the memorial, a reception was held in the Great Hall where an asynchronous photo loop of Jeanne-Claude played in the background. The loop was projected onto five 9-by-12-foot screens that were flown around the hall and rigged from the balcony. Two Christie S+20 projectors shot well off axis to a pair of the screens; three Christie S+16 projectors displayed the loop on the remaining trio of screens. A pair of plasmas in the hall had earlier delivered I-Mag coverage of the memorial to guests who arrived late.
Tony Rossello was project manager for Scharff Weisberg for the memorial.
For more information, please visit www.scharffweisberg.com.
