Robe and GLP star in Texas live show

USA:

Shoreline City Church wanted to bring its congregation together for its Christmas Eve celebration and decided to host the event in the American Airlines Center (AAC) in Dallas, Texas, where local regulations allowed for 25% capacity. The event featured a variety of performances by multiple artists and vocalists from the church, all backed by their house band. The HOW approached Josh Beard and Jacob VanVlymen from Houston-based production design specialist Visual Edge to create a memorable production design.

“This show seemed a little different as most arenas have been shut for a while,” noted VanVlymen. “Everyone did great at getting back up to speed.” The entire show was pre-visualised in WYSIWYG. “We were able to remotely collaborate with the Shoreline City creative and production teams, even running some full show rehearsals virtually, so they knew exactly what to expect on the night,” added Beard.

“The [GLP] impression X4 was a good fit for what we were trying to accomplish,” Beard continued. “They were the main wash fixture over the stage. I knew what kind of throw distance we were working with and knew that they would be a great option for us on this event. I’m always happy to have GLP in the rig.”

Visual Edge also specified a mixture of Robe BMFL Blades, BMFL WashBeams and BMFL FollowSpots. Beard and VanVlymen knew the importance of the design being “immersive” and able to reach out and touch everyone in the room, transferring the energy and action of everything happening onstage. Automation helped achieve this, allowing completed shifts in the stage architecture and plenty of visual surprises that could be revealed throughout the event.

The majority of the 30 BMFL Blades were rigged on the “ribs”, a series of six over-stage trusses, three flown each side of a central upstage/downstage truss, all of which were on motors as part of the automation system. These BMFLs were the primary spot fixtures on the rig and, in addition to their multifunctionality, were powerful enough for the large throw distances needed when the trusses were in certain positions. The remaining BMFL Blades were positioned on the key lighting truss hung out over the audience. The eight BMFL WashBeams were deployed on the upstage part of the super-grid, while the four BMFL FollowSpots were all on the key lighting truss.