Helping to create the environment that would bring together the tens of thousands of college students was the lighting/production design created by Black & White Live Ltd.(London), under the direction of Ian Cattle. The conference's production design was most dramatically expressed by a commanding circular stage at the center of the Georgia Dome. The massive stage was outlined with concentric circles of pixel-controlled LEDs, which glowed, chased, changed colors and even displayed video content, providing great visual interest and a sense of scale to the large custom stage.
Measuring 136ft in diameter at its outer runway and 63ft in diameter in its centre circle, the stage was supplied by Accurate Staging (Nashville) and engineered by Freed Sales Inc. (Miami). The border of light was created with Flex Pixel Tape from Elation Professional, a flexible LED tape that contains 72 tri-color RGB SMD LED pixels per strip.
A total of more than 1,600ft of Elation Flex Pixel Tape was used to outline the stage, about 850ft of it on the outer runway and the rest on the central rings. "We had tape on every edge of the stage," said Passion lighting designer Ed White. "There are basically 4 concentric rings of tape, with extra sections for the ramps and pit entrances."
White explained how the LED-edged stage came about: "The stage design was largely dictated by the fact we were doing a stadium in the round. . . The nature of each session meant that we wanted to connect everyone in the room into the same experience, so curves and runways were the way to go. . . A happy accident occurred when we came up with the final revision of the stage design - from above it looked identical to the Passion logo! Because of this, and the unique shape and contours of the stage, we decided to highlight the edges with an LED product." Credit for the stage and LED edge should go to Passion Conferences production manager Jonathan Sheehan, added White.
Elation Flex Pixel Tape was selected for the job "after looking through various options, solid block colour products and other video-capable products," said White. "Elation Flex Pixel Tape was chosen for a combination of its output, viewing angle, ability to control each pixel separately, and its competitive pricing. Another key factor for us was that the tape is flexible in both the horizontal and vertical planes, as we had to bend it around lots of curves."
Furthermore, Elation and its sister company Acclaim Lighting could provide a one-stop source for all the gear needed to make the concept of a pixel-controlled LED-bordered stage a reality.
(Jim Evans)
