The International Portuguese Music Awards (IPMA) for the past four years has been produced in New Bedford MA, a city that is heavily enriched with the culture of all things Portuguese, especially its rich music. The live-to-air show covers all genres including rock, country, rap, hip-hop and most importantly traditional Portuguese music.
The event is produced locally by Portuguese community members José Xavier, Floriano Cabral and David Saraiva. A deep love for Portuguese music was the driving force for them to create a show that celebrates their native music and its artists.
“They do this once a year, volunteering their time,” says Nate Almeida, the show’s production and lighting designer. “They are a great group of guys deeply involved in giving back to the Portuguese community. It’s their Super Bowl.”
Over the past four years, Almeida and East Coast Lighting & Production Services (ECLPS) have been tasked to create a visual environment that has a fresh new look each year.
“Because of the diverse nature of the musical presentations, I sought to make the design versatile,” Almeida continues. “Bob Morrissey, the owner and president, pretty much gives me full rein to use our inventory to create something that our client will be happy with and I will be proud of.”
Pushing the Video Envelope
During the IPMA award show’s first three years, Nate has been able to introduce more video elements to help with the design’s ability to cater to the shows needs. But this year, with the addition of the Elation EPT6IP 6.67mm LED panels to the ECLPS inventory, he was able to let video play a much larger role in the awards show’s visual design.
“We started building our video department, both technically and creatively,” says Nate. “It is a new animal for us, and we are tackling it head on. We are definitely putting ourselves out there.”
Almeida often chats with Elation’s Eric Loader, sharing his designs and pictures that showcase Elation’s product. “You guys are really pushing the envelope with your designs,” messages Eric to Nate. “The photos from this particular show have generated a lot of positive interest on social media sites.”
The new video inventory enabled Nate to create an ever-evolving “Show Portal” as the centerpiece of the production. He was able to change the mood of the show on a moment’s notice. “With my background being in theatre, I was able to draw on that knowledge of using a scenic element that set the whole visual tone for the show. For the IPMA’s, I applied that knowledge and experience to the video aspect, because it was not just one artist or one type of music. I needed to create a blank canvas that I could paint to create whatever diverse forms of music and moods the event took.”
Adding Visual Depth
Combining the show portal theatrical concept with layering video, trussing, and lighting, he was able to create a much deeper feel to a stage that was only 30 feet deep. “I got the idea about five years ago, after seeing the Tony awards at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
Having had worked at the Beacon multiple times and knowing The Tonys (presented at the much larger Radio City Music Hall for the last three years), made him wonder, “How the hell are they going to do that? The Beacon stage is a postage stamp in comparison.”
Recalling the Tonys at the Beacon (the 70th annual Tony Awards was slated to return to the Beacon for the live CBS broadcast hosted June 12 by James Corden), Nate saw video technology in the form of show portals supplement the occasional set piece. “I had never seen video panels used in that application before. That was something that I kept locked upstairs to use in the future.”
Nate created a false proscenium of Elation EPT6IP video panels hung from James Thomas 12” x 12” box truss, with a set of video legs upstage of that on stage left and stage right. “The panels are very rigid, structurally, so the legs hung easily and went up fast. They are larger than most LED panels (25.2” x 25.2”), so it took less panels to create a bigger look.” The drum riser (16 x 8 x 2 feet) also had video panels on its façade, creating another layer of depth for the shallow stage.
A few feet upstage of that, and floor mounted as well, were two halves of circular truss circles (32 and 20 feet diameter, respectively) that served as key focal points for the design. The arch’s layers also added much-needed visual depth of field to the stage.
“The stage is small, but the show appears so much bigger,” says the designer. On the 32-foot half circle, Nate inverted LED panels attached to the top chord, utilizing Elation’s rigging bar accessory. The crew proudly dubbed it the “Sunburst” which is self-explanatory in the photos of the set.
Logistical Challenges, Control Solutions
This position did come with logistical challenges regarding signal path for the video. Some intelligent pixel mapping was needed for this video layout. The video panels had to be flipped upside down to accommodate the rigging bars, thus reversing the end and start points of the signal path.
Vanio Tavares, the video crew chief, easily corrected the signal path within the Novastar NovaPro HD processor to correctly orientate the video mapping. Nate was able to flip and rotate the image using the High End Systems Axon HD-pro media server to match the rest of the panels on the false proscenium.
Nate programmed the media and lighting using a grandMA2 full sized console. The Axon media server fed signal through Blackmagic Designs ATEM System backstage via two TMB ProPlex fiber optic cables to the digital outputs of the NovaPro, which in turn sent the video content to the EPT6IP screens.
Raising the Bar for 2017
Summing it all up, Nate states, “Being able to showcase our new video products this year allowed me to bring the design up a notch in caliber. It is great to work with a client as enthusiastic as the IPMA’s producers are. This show is something I am very proud of, definitely a highlight of my 25 years as a designer.”
Nate and the ECLPS team look forward to next years IPMA Awards and the challenges that are put before them to create once again a fresh new show design that exceeds everyone’s expectations. Should be a tough act to follow.
Crew
Production Company: East Coast Lighting & Production Services
Production/Lighting & Video Designer: Nathan Almeida
Lighting Crew Chief: Joe Nieuwendyk
Video Crew Chief: Vanio Tavares
TV Lighting Director: David Gruber
Lighting Techs: Ed Boulet, Alicia Colantonio, Jenel Barry, Justin Jannone, Kyle Mello
Gear
Lighting:
- 1 grand MA2 full size console
- 1 grand MA2 Light console
- 22 Martin MAC Viper Profiles
- 16 Martin MAC 700 Profiles
- 16 Martin MAC 700 Washes
- 20 Robe Pointes
- 8 Robe CycFX 8 fixtures
- 8 Chauvet COLORdash Par-Quad 7s
- 24 Optima Par38s
Video:
- 95 Elation EPT6IP LED video panels
- 1 Black Magic Design ATEM Studio Converter
- 2 Black Magic Design ATEM Camera Converter
- 1 TMB Fiber Optical Snake
- 2 Barco RLM-W12 DLP projectors
- 2 Da-Lite projection screens (16’x9’)
- 2 Novastar NovaPro HD LED video wall processors
- 2 Axon HD Pro media servers
