It's not every day that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) can celebrate their 100th anniversary National Scout Jamboree. The event, held July 26-Aug. 4 at Fort A.P. Hill, Va., with the main anniversary celebration held on July 31, drew more than 72,000, with production support from Alford Media, Annapolis Mobile Power, Clair Brothers, Christie Lites, CorporateMagic, Daktronics, EventsBum, Event Tech, GoVision and others. The scouts had a lot more to see and do than just make campfires by rubbing sticks together. At the Jamboree Arena, the bands Honor Society and Switchfoot performed; Miss America 2010 made an appearance; and there were presentations by the Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, and Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, both of whom are former Eagle Scouts.
The event's many spectacles included a 4,500-shot pyro display; a staged production with 400 scouts; flyovers and aerial jumps from all branches of the U.S. Military; parade horses; U.S. Army Stryker armored personnel carriers; and custom video displayed on the tallest portable LED video display ever built.
"We didn't just want our 100th anniversary Jamboree to be bigger and better than the ones that preceded it," said Robert Mazzuca, chief scout executive of the BSA. "That would be easy. We wanted to remind boys and their parents around the world that scouting is fun, it's cool and it is the most direct path to future success and leadership, bar none."
GoVision provided a 60-foot-high, 18-foot-wide portable Daktronics PST-12HD LED screen for the 100-foot-wide main performance stage. Event Tech provided the stage and the custom head-block system to lift the LED wall into place, bracing the 100 LED panels with 26,000 gallons of water and 76,000 pounds of concrete as ballast. GoVision also built two 18-foot-by-32-foot Daktronics LED video walls on either side of the main screen.
"The LED units for the Jamboree were a monumental undertaking, even more complex than what we've done for presidential inaugurations and the Final Four," said Chris Curtis, president and CEO of GoVision LP. "But this was a true labor of love, and we were honored to be a part of such a historic gathering."
Alford Media Services handled the video component of the three major productions, including the musical performances, the appearances by Miss America, Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and a videotaped message from President Barack Obama.
Six cameras were used to capture activity on the stage and throughout the audience, which was simulcast to hundreds of Scout facilities nationwide and via the Internet to viewers worldwide. Two light consoles controlled 204 lights positioned on the stage and towers, and the scrim covering the stage was lit with 54 LED strip lights.
Seven towers stretched for 395 feet across the stage, and the various structures were composed of 17,296 parts. Twenty miles of cable tied everything together. The arena spread out over 13 acres.
"It was such an amazing set that, for the first time, Scouts were given backstage tours," said Brian Greenway, director, alliances and business development for CorporateMagic, Inc. "More than 10,000 boys came through during the week, and it's safe to say they were blown away by the complexity, and enormity, of the operation."
