Dodd Technologies Supports InterVarsity’s Big Year-End Conference
It’s a concert. It’s a church. It’s a theater. It’s an intimate space that takes up half a football dome. It’s Urbana, a collegiate Christian mission conference staged in St. Louis’ Edward Jones Dome the last week of December. Close to 16,000 college-age men and women participated — some dressed for church, most in hoodies and jeans — attending up to seven hours each day over a five-day span for a mix of entertainment, information and spiritual inspiration.
Affiliated companies Dodd Technologies, Tyler Truss Systems and Reel Video Systems were there to make it happen, reshaping the room with lighting and video to fit the needs of the moment, with additional gear for the event provided by Indianapolis Stage Sales & Rentals and Mid-America Sound.
A Participatory Event
The not-for-profit InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a 70-year-old organization with close to 37,000 active students attending more than 500 colleges in the U.S., was the client. Their goal was not to create a “show” in the traditional sense, with a passive audience, but to create an emotional event where every person in the room could feel part of it all. Yet the room was a football dome not normally associated with intimacy (at least other than the intimacy Ram’s quarterback Sam Bradford feels when he’s getting sacked).
LD/designer/producer Andy Meggenhofen accomplished this by hanging five circles in the house that were toned, changing colors with the rest of the rig. Each circle also had eight LEDs shooting into the crowd for splashes of audience color and eight Elation Platinum Beam 5R fixtures for effects.
“Instead of just watching a show in front of them, the audience could be pulled into events by having lights in front and behind them, matching what was going on stage,” explains L2 Matthew Reifsteck. “This is the first year that a concept like this has been possible for this show. The low power draw of the Platinum Beams and LEDs, along with DMX over Ethernet, made the power and data distribution very easy.”
Once Every Three Years
The Urbana convention, held once every three years to inform students about issues faced by Christian missionaries around the world, moved from Toronto to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1948 and was held there through 2003. Attendance grew from 576 at the inaugural event in 1946 to more than 22,000 in 2006, when the event, which retains the Urbana name, was moved to St. Louis to accommodate its growth in size. Dodd Technologies has played a role for more than 15 years.
Balancing artistic goals with more practical concerns such as available time for rigging the system and the needs for video, Meggenhofen sought a unique inspirational look that could be achieved within the production’s time constraints.
A key goal, Reifsteck adds, was for the lighting rig to provide a wide variety of looks. “Because there were five days of shows with an average of five hours of show time a day plus other different types of programs including speakers, music, dance, hip hop, theatre, etc., Andy didn’t want a ‘one trick’ lighting rig. Hence the variety of fixtures.
“The show actually has three distinct stages,” Reifsteck continues. “Stage right is the worship stage, where the band backs up contemporary worship songs. The center stage had the lectern, which was used for preaching, Bible study, testimonials and administrative uses. Then stage left is for small theatre and dance pieces.”
“The three-stage design ultimately served two purposes,” adds Meggenhofen. “First, it added weight to the stage layout in the large room. It also provided the ability to seamlessly transition between segments in the event without resetting the stage.” Despite the differences of what was happening stage left and stage right, he chose to mirror the lighting rig on both sides for uniformity when the focus was on the center stage, relying on the flexibility and capabilities of the fixtures themselves to meet the specific needs of each space.
Large fixtures (Vari*Lite VL3500s, Martin MAC 2000 Wash XBs and MAC IIIs) were used to frame and provide dramatic lighting for the theatrical stage, while the same fixtures moved through the audience during musical performance numbers. “While the gear was the same, the intent and use was different, depending on the segment of the event,” Meggenhofen adds.
Truss Rings and Fingers
Walking into the dome, the centerpiece rig first captures attention. The 30-foot OD circle rig featured PixelLine Micro-W LEDs, which were used as toners, and Martin MAC 101s added eye candy and shafts of light. On either side of the circle there were four 50-foot finger trusses made from Tyler Centerline truss. The truss sections were rigged for power in a way so that the fixtures wouldn’t have to be offset, allowing fixtures be hung in a straight line. “Each finger had eight Platinum Beams for effects, along with two 2K washes and two MAC IIIs for back and top light,” Reifsteck says.
Two 40-foot trusses were also hung upstage, one for the band side and one for the theater side, and each truss featured 12 Platinum Beams, six Atomic 3000 Strobes and six 4-Lites. “The Platinum Beams were either used for beams/effects, or back light,” Reifsteck adds, noting that with their frost wheels and close spacing, “they worked well as a back wash.”
Tyler GT truss — 120 feet, and pre-rigged with VL3500s and 2K Fresnels — served as the downstage truss. Most of it could be pre-circuited, Reifsteck notes. “Multi-cable looms rode on the top, and as soon as the truss was pinned together, that was stretched out, making the cabling done. Locations for overhung Source Fours were pre-marked with PVC truss protectors. The entire 120-foot length of truss was hung and ready to fly in about 20 minutes.”
“The rigging was definitely complicated, but fortunately, due to a significant amount of preplanning, it only took eight hours to hang 88 points, including many points with bridles,” adds Meggenhofen.
Big Beams and Video
Meggenhofen, who has been gliding faders since 1992, coming to Dodd Technologies in 2000, says he simply chose gear on what the show required. “The VL3500s, MAC IIIs, and other large moving heads painted the space with large strokes, while the Elation Platinum Beams were able to fill the large volume of 3D space in the venue, essentially allowing the design to reach out and envelop the audience.” The beams were enhanced by atmospheric effects generated by two MDG CO2 hazers along with onstage DF-50 Diffusion and Jem smoke machines.
For control, Meggenhofen used a dual grandMA2 console setup, choosing the desks for their capabilities with “networking, simultaneous programming, and full tracking backup.” Both were set up to access and handle the entire show file, though each was used for programming to save time during load-in and tech. During the show, one console ran as a primary and the other served as a full-tracking backup.
The lighting design was heavily influenced by the need to harmonize with video elements used in the production. “Twentyonehundred Productions is InterVarsity’s in-house production department,” notes Reifsteck. “They produced most of the videos and graphics, as well as provided a video director and camera operators.”
It was a video-intensive show, with everything shot and projected in HD. Content appeared on two 18-by-32-foot rear projector screens, each with a double stack of Christie projectors; four 12-by-21-foot front projection screens; and two 40-by-10-foot Reel Video Systems LED screens that served as the backdrop at stage right and stage left. The latter featured a 12.5mm pixel pitch and were used for graphics and background videos. A Christie Spyder X20 was the core of video control and screen management.
Onward to 2015
“I have to say that Local 6 was great to work with, they provided one of the best local crews I’ve ever had,” says Reifsteck. “And we always love working with Klance Unlimited, who provided the staging and managed the local labor for us.”
“Urbana is one of those projects that guys in our industry look forward to all year,” Meggenhofen adds. “Sure, the days can be long, but the client allows our team an immense amount of flexibility to flex their creative muscles and deliver an event that is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Our team is built of individuals passionate about what they do, and they all take pride in the final product of an event like Urbana.”
Crew
Lighting/Production Designer: Andy Meggenhofen
Programmer: Jason Greene
Master Electrician: Matthew Reifsteck
Lighting Techs: Derek Dechert, Bryce Loughman, David Seitz
LED Wall Tech: Denny Relf
Projectionist: Michael Dodd
Video Engineer: Cory Hack
Switcher: Michael “Slush” Mehringer
Graphics: Jeremy Fliss
Gear
Lighting:
2 grandMA2 consoles
1 grandMA2 onPC w/wing
6 grandMA NPUs
138 Elation Platinum Beam 5Rs
120 Elation ELED Tri-Par 56 fixtures
32 Martin MAC 101 fixtures
16 Martin MAC III spot fixtures
16 Martin MAC 2000 Wash XBs
6 Martin MAC 2000 Wash fixtures
12 Vari*Lite VL3500 Spots
12 Martin Atomic 3000 strobes
46 PixelLine Micro W LEDs
36 Arri 2K Fresnels
21 ETC Source Fours (24 19°; 12 14°; 6 10°)
24 ETC Source Four PAR MFLs
20 4-Lites
10 Altman Zip Strips
4 Altman single cell cyc lights
3 ETC Sensor Racks (2 72×2.4K; 1 12x24K)
Video:
4 Christie HD10K-M projectors (double-stacked)
4 Panasonic PT-DW10000U (single-stacked)
2 Rear projection screens (18’x32’)
4 Front projection screens (12’x21’)
1 Christie Spyder X20-0808 video processor
6 Sony HXC-100K cameras; 3 40x Fujinon lenses
1 Panasonic HVS-400N video switcher
5 AJA Ki Pro Recorders
Rigging:
400’ Tyler Center Line truss
120’ Tyler GT truss
80’ Tyler truss (20.5” x 20.5”)
80’ Tyler black truss (12” x 12”)
1 30’ OD 20.5” truss circle
3 20’ OD 20.5” truss circles
2 10’ OD 20.5” truss circles
8 Stagemaker 2-ton motors
40 Stagemaker 1-ton motors
40 Stagemaker ½-ton motors
10 Stagemaker ¼-ton motors
1 Motion Labs control system
