NEW YORK – Video equipment rental company Pete’s Big TVs is supplying the set of NBC’s new prime time interactive TV game show, The Million Second Quiz, with a multitude of broadcast-quality video screens, flexible digital signage, monitors and a video crew. Premiering Sept. 9, the show clock runs the competition for one million seconds nonstop until Sept. 19.
More details from Pete’s Big TVs (www.petesbigtvs.com):
The New York set was built outdoors on a rooftop of the former Mercedes-Benz dealership in Manhattan. Set designer Anton Goss and art director Anthony Bishop incorporated a multitude of LED video panels into the set to add excitement and provide visual content, colors and contest stats such as prize money won and so on. LD Kieran Healy was responsible for all the lighting.
An hourglass shaped cage structure serves as an iconic symbol of the show. A ticker screen surrounds 270 degrees of the top ring and is made up of 48 x37mm Gtek LED video panels, each three feet square for a total of 141 feet long. A full 360 degrees of video tile were not needed as the back part would be hidden from cameras and the audience, explained Pete’s Big TVs VP Guy Benjamin.
The “money chair,” where the contestants sit, takes center stage inside the hourglass. Surrounding the chair is an illuminated ring, which is lined inside and outside with digiFlex dFX6 6mm flexible LED panels. The digiFlex is also surrounding the base of the competing contestant’s podium. Again, the “ticker tape” allows contestant names, prize money, changing colors and other content to display for the cameras.
Says Benjamin, “The digiFlex is essentially a flexible rubber mat with LEDs, and the panels can wrap around shapes. The panels attach to a metal screen using magnets. We just bought the digiFlex product for this show.”
Two other main screens on both sides of the hourglass structure are comprised of digiLED MC7 mm LED panels in Tait touring frames. There are 77 panels on each screen at seven panels high by seven panels wide. “Using the Tait touring frames on the panels make it stronger structurally and easier to install on the structure,” says Benjamin.
More screens outfit the showroom. A TV studio was set up in an area called Winner’s Row, where competing contestants reside. Again, digiLED MC7 mm LED panels serve as another broadcast-quality ticker display to post names, prize money and other info during the competition.
Another assortment of monitors are supplied throughout the set and in the contestants’ waiting lounge.
Benjamin said Pete’s Big TVs was equipped to handle the diverse challenges of this live show, which combines the needs of a broadcast-quality TV event and an exciting game show with the elements of a live outdoor event. “We are doing more TV work lately and we have 25 years of experience in outdoor concert events. We know how to work in both of these worlds,” Benjamin said. “We have the proper equipment and the experienced crew.”
His crew, he adds, includes Matt Ellar, Rob Villalobos, Jody Lane and Alex Keene.
Pete’s Big TVs has worked with set designer Anton Goss on past projects including the MTV Woodie Awards and the Cartoon Network’s Hall of Game Awards, both designs influenced by game shows.
“Million Second Quiz” is a game show challenge combining trivia knowledge and endurance. The show is dubbed “the first fully convergent television experience,” where viewers from all across America can play along in sync with the game during prime time via an app and get a chance to be chosen live on air as a contestant for the following night’s prime time show. Ryan Seacrest is the host.
Photos: Matt Ellar
