Hello readers, this month the word “BIG” springs to mind when I think of this issue. It seems that every week, we here at PLSN get a new piece of news across our desk that utters the word’s “Largest” or “Biggest Ever” in the headline.
Of course, this draws my eye every time to see what they are announcing. Half the time it’s a con job, 25 percent of the time the writer actually thought they were really the biggest, and well — sometimes it actually is.
Not Just Big — Super
Take, for instance, this month’s feature on the halftime show for Super Bowl 50. We all know this is perhaps the most publicized sporting game and subsequential entertainment show aired most years. But when you hold it in a building with no roof, under a sky still bright from a setting sun, it’s gonna be different. One has to think outside the box. So the design team did. Was it the biggest and best show of the year? No, but it was still entertaining, and we cover how it was achieved from every angle on pages 34-37.
Last year, I had four different stories announce that they had achieved the largest projection mapped surface in the world for an event. In reality two of the companies were actually telling the truth. Even by Guinness standards. So when I got a call earlier this year from a friend saying I had to check out what George P. Johnson was doing at the Detroit Auto show for the Fiat Chrysler booth, I looked into it. Unprecedented things were happening. The word 30 million pixels was bantered around.
Okay, that one gets my eyes open. Considering that the day before someone wrote in about a massive show that utilized 7.5 million pixels, I had to wonder if this 30 million number was indeed not just a boast. It wasn’t. The folks from Seibo assembled a heckuva lot of gear together for this event and really brought this show to life. Check out the full story on pages 58-59. Detroit may be changed forever.
A wall of lights is nothing really new at a rock show. We’ve seen variations, but quite honestly, I have never seen one that’s 60 feet high and loaded with more than 100 Martin MAC Vipers. But if you’re Black Sabbath and you are calling an end to a band that started close to 50 years ago, you wish to leave a big statement. So the Woodroffe Bassett team stepped up with a beautiful, BIG design, on pages 28-32.
When a singer of stature such as Andrea Bocelli hits the road, it is no small event. Steve Cohen and his team designed a BIG projection spectacle that is over the top in both size and imagery. While seated in a vast arena, the production easily takes you to an intimate setting with breathtaking video imagery presented through a forced perspective to complement a unique show that differs from the opera music normally associated with this artist. It starts on page 54 — in the biggest video section this magazine has ever run (okay, ONE of the biggest, anyway).
Big Air in Boston
For over-the-top BIG time staging, we take you to a ballpark. Because where better to erect a humongous temporary ski jump than at Fenway Park in Boston for the Big Air event (pages 40-41). A big show on Broadway now is the School of Rock with Natasha Katz lighting it (“Inside Theatre,” pages 26-27). The classic movie hits Broadway and, yes, the kids all shred on their own guitars.
Even the lights are getting Bigger. Clay Paky has stepped up and given us the large format hard edge fixture we have been waiting for, the Scenius. Read about this bad mamajama as we test out its amazing qualities (Road Test, page 62). But sometimes you need something small to pack a big punch. This month we have a great little controller by Lightronics that can play a big role. Enttec’s little LED mapper system (Road Test, page 61). A small program that controls huge amounts of pixels.
So is bigger definitely better? Perhaps not in every facet of life. But if you want to get noticed in the live event industry, it certainly helps. As evidenced by the news we at PLSN are serving up this month.
For Nook Schoenfeld’s introduction to the March 2016 issue of PLSN, go to www.plsn.me/201603ednote.
