WorldStage provided video and lighting support for the first YouTube advertiser’s upfront at New York City’s Beacon Theater.
YouTube has launched YouTube Brandcast, giving marketers and agencies a first look at YouTube’s new original programming and insights into the world’s biggest audience.
Good Sense helped YouTube structure the show, which needed “a look to match their brand: very neat and clean and forward-looking,” said Good Sense co-founder Jared Siegel. To achieve that, the company also had to “help bring the Beacon into the 21st century by packing in as many video screens as we could. We heard it was one of the largest shows ever at the theater.”
- WorldStage provided video switching, cameras, LED walls, lighting and rigging. “The event had a very ambitious design, especially in the small space of the Beacon,” said WorldStage event manager Josh Perlman.
- The upfront used a custom Musion screen to provide a 3D Holographic effect. The screen, which is typically teamed with projectors, was paired with a 6mm LED wall instead. “In order for this to work, we had to use a high-res wall and lay it flat on the floor – something a high-res wall is not really meant to do. So we worked closely with the Good Sense team, which included Hudson Scenic, to design a frame to support the LED tiles. This massive frame, which was fabricated by Hudson, lifted the tiles off the ground to provide space for our crew to wire and perform maintenance,” said Perlman.
- The LED walls provided included a 45’ x 10’ Barco 16bk wall, a 50’ x 13’ Barco NX-4 wall, and 42’ x 16’ 7mm Everbrighten 7 wall. Each LED wall was fed by two channels of Encore, requiring a total of six Encore video processors.
WorldStage also furnished 20 LCD monitors scattered around the venue and utilized as remote viewing and confidence monitors. “Each was an output on a large HD-SDI router so we could route any signal anywhere,” said Perlman. Show content was created by Ant Farm and played back on servers provided by Obscura Digital. The show was recorded in HD via a three-camera HD package provided by WorldStage.
WorldStage also supplied the lighting for lighting designer Chris Dallos, including VARI*LITE VL1000s and VL3500s, as well as conventional fixtures; and a handful of LEDs. Lighting was programmed on a grandMA2 console. Rigging provided consisted of 12-, 16- and 20-foot box truss and motors from one-half to 2 tons.
“The biggest challenge was the space,” said Josh Perlman. “Everyone we talked to about what we wanted to do said ‘it won’t fit.’ So I spent countless hours in front of CAD drawings – every inch had to be accounted for and planned out or it wouldn’t work. When we arrived on site we followed the plan perfectly and ended up making the show fit. But it got very cozy backstage.”
“This type of install really wanted two full days of install and a day of rehearsals,” said Perlman. “But we had just over a day of install before rehearsals. It was a very tight schedule.”
