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August 2017

Jason Rudolph

Jason Rudolph

Entertainment is certainly in Jason Rudolph’s DNA. As the fourth-generation member of the industry, he carries on his family’s rich legacy into new areas of technology. Having started out as a lighting programmer, his mix of projects these days is 95 percent visuals and media-based. He has a busy career as a screens programmer and producer as well as, at times, a video technical manager on massive live shows and televised events like the Oscars and the Super Bowl Halftime Show, music festivals, corporate events, and occasional concert tours and architectural installations.

The indoor stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium was one of many stages used for the event.

Colossal Clusterfest Goes Off Like Clockwork

Large Screen Video provides ultra-high-resolution video screens in the heart of San Francisco

Imagine that you’re in charge of the video screens and on-the-fly production for 50 acts in three days on eight stages—three outdoors and five indoors. Many acts arrive maybe half an hour before they go on and conduct shorthand explanations of what they want to happen behind them or alongside them as they perform. You and a crew of 30 work feverishly to keep things moving and pull off a flawless series of performances.

ELO - Alone in the Universe, Wembley photo by Kris Goodman

ELO at Wembley Stadium

Jeff Lynne’s Spaceship Rises Again on Stageco Tower

His aviator shades, curly mop and beard may appear to be cryogenically frozen in time, but the renaissance of Jeff Lynne and his Electric Light Orchestra continues to move ever forward in popularity and — with assistance from Stageco — sheer physical size, as witnessed by 70,000 ecstatic fans at Wembley Stadium on June 24.

Lighting truss articulates to create multiple looks for the numerous acts. Getty Images courtesy ARS

K-Love Awards

LabeLive and Atlanta Rigging Systems Raise the Roof at the Grand Ole Opry

The K-Love Fan Awards is the premiere “Ultimate fan experience” for the Christian Contemporary Music industry hosted at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. The event is an opportunity for fans to see 22 of their favorite artists perform and accept awards on the historic main stage.

From left, Eric Lawrence, Tim Waterman, Carman Savarese and Franti Zykan

The 411 on Area Four Industries

When Area Four Industries America Distribution Company opened its new distribution facility in Knoxville, TN in November 2016, it marked a key milestone in CEO Franti Zykan’s vision of blazing a new trail in the truss and support structure industry.

All Photos by Joe Kenemore

A Complete Reset

Design Team Reboots Corporate Event Conventions with In-the-Round Cisco Live!

The purpose of this year’s Cisco Live! event, a multi-day educational event for IT and networking professionals staged within the Mandalay Bay Arena in Las Vegas in late June, was to introduce a radically new networking product. So it makes sense that, when the event’s organizers turned to Lightswitch and Go! Experience Design, they were hoping to provide attendees with an experience that also defied expectations.

The curved LED display moved up and down to reveal company VIPs and musical acts. Photos courtesy Leo Events

Walmart Annual Shareholders Meeting

There’s nothing that comes close to the Annual Walmart Shareholders Meeting as employees gather from around the world in Fayetteville, Arkansas to celebrate all things Walmart, the most profitable retailer in the world since 1988. Founder Sam Walton held the first shareholders meeting in 1970 when he presided over five others at a coffee shop table in Bentonville, the company’s headquarters. Each year the event grew, and since 1994, it has been held on the University of Arkansas campus in Bud Walton Arena, home to the Razorbacks basketball teams. This year, Walmart associates and shareholders filled the arena.