Dodd Technologies Serves Up a Visual Feast for Multi-Venue, Three-Day Convention
Working a three-day convention event with thousands of attendees and a plethora of live video content is already a challenge for collaborating companies, but add in a live concert event as well as video walls in two other locations, and the juggling act becomes trickier. But Indianapolis-based Dodd Technologies was up to the task of tackling the ExactTarget Connections conference, which included speakers Jim Collins, Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a presentation by Pinterest.
ExactTarget is an Indianapolis-based digital marketing company that helps their clients use multiple platforms, from social media to e-mail, to broaden their reach. Every year they present the Connections conference to thousands of their clients. “They walk through and demonstrate a lot of the new web based platforms that they offer,” explains Scott Renick, Watchout programmer for the event and graphic technologist for Dodd Technologies. “This is actually an opportunity for their customers to come and learn more about ExactTarget, their products and digital marketing.”
Main Stage Event
For the 5,000-capacity Main Stage event at the Indiana Convention Center, Dodd brought in everything that was needed: audio, video, lighting, scenic, rigging and soft goods.
“What we try to do, and what we have developed as an organization over almost 30 years now, is the ability to look at a program as a whole,” assesses Renick. “Obviously they [ExactTarget] were very happy with the video elements, and we tried to create an environment by the lighting of the room, including shutting off the lights on the ceiling and using drapes to cover the convention center walls. Our strength is balancing all of the elements of the production — lighting, audio, video, scenic — and creating a cohesive show out of them. Shows like this, where you have one macro element that you have to balance with everything else, really allows us to play to that strength.”
Officially brought on to the project in late April, the Dodd team worked on the design until late July, then they coordinated their different departments with the ExactTarget events and media teams to fit all the pieces together and fill in the gaps. The crew count for the Main Stage was 24, with an additional five people roaming and acting as runners.
Dodd started their build on Friday, Sept. 13. They started with 138 motor points and approximately 3,000 linear feet of truss, and it took an entire day to get the rigging floating. They continued load in on Saturday and built two giant projection screens on either side of the podium. Once the rigging was in place, they concentrated on projections, focusing lights, programming, checking lines and signals and adjusting and working with content. The conference began on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. with a five-minute performance by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
ExactTarget hired the orchestra to compose a piece of music to inaugurate their event and perform it live. The ensemble would only be able to rehearse it a couple of times on the morning of the opening day. Renick says that it was a challenge from all perspectives, particularly miking the musicians well enough to fill the room. He believes their strong pre-planning allowed the event to go off without a hitch.
Sound-wise, there were four clusters of line array PA in the front, along with delayed audio off the four rear delay video projection trusses to fill the space.
Visual Synergy
Naturally, video played a crucial role in the ExactTarget conference. Along with four 9 by 16 foot video delays for people sitting farther back, there were two 15 by 90 foot (HxW) projections surfaces on either side of the stage backed by LED downlit cyc material. The center LED screen behind the podium was 12 by 32 feet (HxW).
“The unique thing about LED is that we’re able to get video right behind people with higher saturation levels than we’ve ever been able to before,” declares Renick. “Obviously, off to the sides, we can use projections, because we’re not worried about creating shadows. Where people are walking in front of it, even if you’re using rear projections with stage lighting, you’re losing saturation, so LEDs have really helped us to create those surfaces that people can walk up to and interact with and allows for fantastic color saturation.”
The lights were run through a grandMA2 console, and there were seven truss fingers ranging in length from 100 to 130 feet, spreading out from the stage to the back of the auditorium. Lights were spaced about every 10 feet, and Martin MAC Auras were used for all of the house lighting. “We had the ability to do effects, to zoom and focus and change color, and tone the truss as well,” says Renick. “We could change the color of the truss independently of the room lighting and create some awesome transition looks.”
Renick loves the Auras for mood lighting. He says this is the third time this year that Dodd has lit a large space from overhead with Auras, and their ability to zoom in and out allows them “to really fill a space with light and program it as well, so it’s functional but has a great aesthetic. We could change the color of the truss and put the audience in blue. It creates a really neat element overhead.”
“I’m not a lighting guy by any means, but one of the things I like about the idea of branching the lights out into the audience is, it almost brings them into the stage,” notes co-technical director Cory Hack, who is also a video engineer for Dodd Technologies. “The color of the stage comes up to you, and you’re a part of it.”
“It’s about creating an environment,” adds Renick. “It’s not just a stage and a screen, it’s a room that immerses you in that content to the point where everywhere you look, it’s there.”
One strong example of this visual synergy was Jim Collins’ presentation, which was designed for a red background. “All of the trusses went red, all of the side lighting went red, and it was all animated,” recalls Renick. “So as he made his way to the stage, it all emanated to the sides.”
Planning and Teamwork
Hack recalls how his team originally met with ExactTarget to get an idea of how they wanted to build everything. “We started with the idea of building everything with Watchout and driving everything in that direction, but as we were nearing deadlines we slowly came to the realization that building everything on Watchout wasn’t the most intuitive thing,” says Hack. “So we started transitioning certain presentation elements into PowerPoint and blending the PowerPoint into the Watchout, which made it a lot easier when presenters made their way with new content and new developments. We could change on the fly.”
The key to dealing with the video input from multiple sources (PCs, Macs, iPhones) was rehearsals that were held every morning for an hour or two prior to doors opening. A lot of the preprogramming was done in advance in Watchout 5. Renick stresses that with a show like this, running through things repeatedly is imperative. “Once everything was set, it ran flawlessly,” he says. “We had a flawless week. It wasn’t a matter of luck; we spent a lot of time rehearsing to get everyone in sync. The director was great and did a good job working with all of us and keeping us in concert — teching everything and having the time to tech. We had a really great week.”
“The director really helped out a lot, because he was sitting up in front of house and making sure that everything that we wanted on the screens was what was supposed to be there,” says Hack. “That really helped during those rehearsals. He really got everybody on the same page and on the same cues.”
The key for being able to handle everything required of Dodd? Coordination.
“We work with a team mentality,” asserts Renick. “We spend weeks in advance planning and walking through how our load is going to go and what we are going to be doing at any given time during the load, and then we divide and conquer with our departments to make sure that everyone has their piece of the pie so that we’re not overextending any one individual.” Renick notes that, while “there are going to be things that pop up,” the various crew members know each other well and work well as a coordinated team.
On top of the three-day event at the convention center, Dodd also installed two interactive video walls — a 10-by-24-foot (HxW) unit in the hotel lobby and a 10-by-30-foot (HxW) unit in the convention center lobby — to reach attendees as well. Social media, driven by hashtags and Instagram, supplied content for these walls, helping to document events as they were happening live.
Stadium Concert and Party
On a larger scale, Dodd also tackled the Wednesday night party; in this case a six-hour live concert event for 6,000 to 7,000 people featuring Imagine Dragons, the Avett Brothers and DJ Casey, which took place at Lucas Oil Stadium, home to the Indiana-
polis Colts. ExactTarget wanted to put a stage at the 50-yard line, which required it to be rigged to the roof located 300 feet above.
“We could have brought in a self-climbing structure, but it would have taken away from the aesthetic of the building,” notes Renick. “They really wanted people to realize that they are on the floor of an NFL stadium, so we built a truss lighting grid and rigged it to the roof. It was not the first time we rigged it there, and it won’t be the last. [Working with] Imagine Dragons and the Avett Brothers is another example of how we have the technology and the ability to take a concept and make an experience in multiple venues. We carried that experience over to different venues. It was incredible evening in there. Imagine Dragons and the Avett Brothers were phenomenal to work with. I had never seen either of them live, and it was truly something else. I’ve got to give it up to our lighting team — obviously the bands’ guys ran the consoles during the show, but they sure filled that place with light.”
The end result of all of this hard work was a three-day event that Renick and Hack are proud to be associated with. “ExactTarget have an awesome brand that they’ve built, and being able to work with them to turn that brand into a feasible reality was a hell of a lot of fun,” sums up Renick. “They’re always up for creative, cool new ideas.”
Crew
Lighting Designer: Andy Meggenhofen
Master Electrician: Matthew Reifsteck
Lighting Programmer: Jason Greene
Electricians: Bryce Loughman, Brent Bohs, Brandon Gallegos
Lead LED Tech: Taylor Bragg
LED Tech: Justin Wilson
Carpenter: David Dodd, Dan Vaughn
Technical Directors: Michael “Slush” Mehringer, Cory Hack
Video Engineer: Kibru Senbetta
Watchout Programmers: Scott Renick, Dan Page
Graphics: Jeremy Fliss
Projectionists: Michael Dodd and Tom Fouché
Vista Spyder Programmer: Dylan Ankney
Crew Manager: Andy Gerber
Stage Manager: Jon Bond
Gear, Main Stage
Main Stage (Indiana Convention Center)
Lighting:
1 grandMA2 full size consoles (primary)
1 grandMA2 on PC w/ Wing (backup)
2 grandMA NPUs, 2-port nodes
12 Vari*Lite VL3500 Spots
16 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots
120 Martin MAC Auras
47 PixelLine Micro-Ws
36 Chroma-Q Color Force 72”
20 Chroma-Q Color Force 48”
30 Elation Platinum Beam 5R Pro fixtures
12 Elation Platinum Wash ZFX fixtures
36 Arri 2K Fresnels
4 ETC Source Fours (1 19°; 4 50°)
1 72 x 2.4K Sensor rack
Video:
4 Sony HXC-100 HD cameras
1 Panasonic AV-SH410 switcher
5 AJA Ki-Pro digital record decks
2 Sony BRC-900 robotic cameras
2 Vista Systems Spyder X20 1608 units
11 Dataton Watchout v5 servers
3 MacBook Pro graphics computers
2 Playback Pro computers
1 Lightware 32×32 DVI matrix router
18 Christie HD20K-J projectors
51 Reel Video Systems LED video panels
10 Barco Image Pro 3G video switchers
Rigging:
20 10’ sections Tyler GT Truss
125 10’ sections Tyler 20” box truss (black)
30 10’ sections Tyler 20” box truss (silver)
120 10’ sections Tyler 12” box truss (silver)
85 Stagemaker SM5 motors
53 Stagemaker SM10 motors
Entertainment Stage
(Lucas Oil Stadium)
Lighting:
18 Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures
24 Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash fixtures
15 Elation Platinum Beam 5R Pro fixtures
12 Martin Atomic 3000 strobes
4 Vari*Lite VL2500 Spots
4 Vari*Lite VL2500 Wash fixtures
30 Altman Focusing Cyc units
6 ETC Source Fours (14°)
1 72x 2.4k Sensor Rack
Video:
2 Christie 16S+16K projectors
1 Custom roll drop projection truss section
2 grandMA2 VPUs
1 High End Systems Axon media server
Rigging:
28 10’ Tyler Centerline truss
18 Stagemaker SM10 motors w/ 150’ chain
