Nocturne V-9 Makes High School Musical Shine

January 2007.

Disney has adapted the highly successful movie High School Musical to the road, using video support from Nocturne. The new Nocturne V-9 LED screen is the centerpiece and backdrop of the production which is currently touring arenas nationwide thru January. The 40 stop tour features 5 of the original cast members from the movie.

Nocturne is proud to be working once again with Kenny Ortega, the film's Emmy Award-winning director and choreographer, who is the creative director for the concert.

The screen is used to incorporate clips from the original film with updated live performances from the stage. Even at the 30 x 30 ft size needed for this production, the entire LED screen still weighs in at less than 10,000 lbs, "the New Nocturne V-9 screen is the lightest High Resolution screen on the market," says LED Tech Steven Burkholder. He and Nicholas Weldon take care of the daily moves that make this production shine.

Disney's HSM tour came from an Award winning movie and triple platinum selling musical. Disney's High School Musical the movie drew almost 8 million viewers the first day it was out last January and has continued in the past year to almost 60 million viewers.

 

Nocturne Dances With The Stars

Dancing With The Stars has taken to the road with support from Nocturne Video.

The touring re-creation of the TV show features stars from all three seasons, plus a company of professional dancers.

"Reproducing a television show on the road is a challenge," said Kate Twitchell, the show's video director. "With a cast of nearly 30 doing quick costume changes, and over 1,500 lighting, sound and video cues in the show, the backstage area is a very busy place."

Fans feel like they've been transported to the set of the TV show, featuring a huge dance floor surrounded by tables for VIP seating. The usual TV hosts have been replaced by a 50' projection screen across the back of the stage, used to introduce each star and their partner and show highlights of their award winning performances.

Four Ikegami broadcast cameras cover the action on the dance floor, while two Barco 20k projectors fill the center screen with plenty of punch. Two 16 x 9 imag screens left and right give the audience a close up look at their favorite performers. The Pinnacle i9000 switcher and six channels of hard drive playback complete the Nocturne package.

The stars joining this year's trek include season three winner Cheryl Burke, Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin, Joey McIntyre, Joey Lawerence, Drew Lachey, Karina Smirnoff, Kym Johnson, and Edyta Sliwinska. Outstanding choreographer Louis Van Amstel does double duty both as a performer and the choreographer for the show.

Local dancers from each city are encouraged to participate in the Slim-Fast Dance Challenge, which allows two couples from each city to actually perform as part of every show, with the audience choosing the winner.

 

Nocturne Video at Miss America

January 29, 2007.

Nocturne Video was tapped this year to support the 2007 Miss America pageant held at the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood Resort in Las Vegas. Hosted by Mario Lopez, the show was produced by Don Mischer Productions and reached 7.2 million total viewers in its first two airings.

LED specialists Stefaan Michaels and Shawn Worlow, and projectionist Tom Marconi used an array of Nocturne's new Stealth LED panels and VER's pixel curtains to build a virtual set filling the background of the stage with light and magic. A total of five Element Labs d2s were used to conform the playback material to the intricate design.

Broadcast nationwide live on CMT on Monday, Jan.29, the Miss America crown for 2007 was awarded to Miss Oklahoma Lauren Nelson.

 

Nocturne Productions Supports Hill and McGraw's Soul2Soul II Tour

2006 Tour

When Tim McGraw and Faith Hill decided to launch their Soul 2 Soul II tour for 2006, they brought in Nocturne Productions to accomplish the production design by Roy Bennett, which uses the latest in LED technology.

Custom 1080i high-definition graphic designs are displayed with pixel-for-pixel accuracy across the entire stage floor throughout the performance using Nocturne's new Saco V9 LED hi-def display, while eight cameras capture the action for the image magnification projection screens above and large plasma screens beside the stage.

The in-the-round production features a center stage with four ramps thrusting far into the audience area to let the stars reach out and literally touch their fans every night while performing two-and-a-half hours of non-stop hits from their highly successful careers.

The stage floor is completely made up of V-9 LED covering over 2,000 sq. ft., making the seats in the upper deck an even better vantage point to enjoy the performance. The flexibility of Nocturne's V9 LED modules allows a wide variety of architectural designs.

You can read more about the tour in the August issue of Lighting&Sound America

 

Nocturne a Smash at Super Bowl XLI Bash

February 2007

Nocturne Video returned to continue supporting Super Bowl celebrations this year, supplying video enhancement for both VH1's Pepsi Smash concert and the NFL's exclusive VIP party at Bayfront Park in Miami. Broadcast nationally on VH1, the 2007 Super Bowl Pepsi Smash concert event featured performances by Kanye West, Fergie, John Legend, and Ludacris, who rocked the house from the specially constructed concert venue just outside Dolphins Stadium. Two 14' x 21' Nocturne V9 HD LED screens flanked the stage for the performance, giving football and music fans crystal clear close-ups of their favorite performers.

On the Bayfront Park site, the Lombardi Trophy, as well as both NFC and AFC championship trophies acted as the centerpiece while NFL VIPs celebrated America's biggest game in style. The elaborate production design for both venues was realized by Spike Brandt of Artfag, LLC.

The evening's festivities were hosted by Pro Bowl running back Jamal Anderson and featured inspired performances by New Edition, REO Speedwagon, and an energetic set from 80s rockers Blondie. An outstanding fireworks and laser display over beautiful Biscayne Bay exhibited the city of Miami's pride in hosting the big game.

Using a mix of live cameras from one of Nocturne's state-of-the-art HD camera systems, five Barco FLM R20+ projectors lit the entire stage and nearby palm trees, showing both live concert action and football highlights from the season. Projectionist Mike Sienkewitz said, "I've never been an agricultural projectionist before. This is cool."

 

Super Bowl XLI and Party Score with grandMA Console

A complement of grandMA consoles controlled a dazzling array of fixtures employed by lighting directors Patrick Dierson and Kevin Lawson of Artfag, LLC at two pre-Super Bowl concerts. GrandMAs also controlled lighting by Artfag lighting and video directors Richard Wold and Pat Brannon for a pre-game NFL party for VIPs. A.C.T. Lighting is the exclusive distributor of the grandMA in North America.

The Pepsi Smash Concert Series' latest event, VH-1 Presents Pepsi Smash Bash featuring John Legend, Fergie, and Kanye West, was hosted by Taye Diggs outside Dolphins Stadium on the NFL Experience Concert Stage. Recorded to HD by MTV Networks the Thursday before the game, the concert was telecast on Saturday night.

Friday night Telemundo's Pepsi Smash Super Bowl Fiesta featuring Don Omar, Ivy Queen, and Aventura was taped on the same stage for broadcast as well. Spike Brandt at Artfag provided production design for both concerts.

"The same equipment and rig was used for each event," notes Dierson. "Two grandMAs and a backup unit were on hand with three MA NSPs. They controlled various Martin MAC 2000 Washes, Profiles, Performances, conventional dimming and special Syncrolite SXB-5/2Ds. Two grandMAs, networked to run in a multi-user mode, were operated by two people at all times. We also had the backup grandMA in session, which allowed guest designers to run their shows themselves while still enabling the lighting directors to control the fixtures."

Dierson says the grandMAs' use of worlds, which permitted the lighting directors to completely isolate control of certain fixtures, was a key feature. "At no time were any of the programmers or operators disrupted during the live taping," he points out. "In using worlds, we were able to separate key and talent backlighting and all audience aerial lighting from the stage lighting rig as well as what we were controlling in the distance on the stadium itself. All in realtime and all controlled via wireless DMX."

A third pre-game event was the NFL Super Bowl 2007 Bayfront Park party for NFL executives and VIPs. Held at Miami's Bayfront Amphitheater, it was headlined by New Edition, Blondie, and REO Speedwagon. Dierson and Wold were lighting directors for the festivities, with Brannon as video director and Brandt as production designer.

Three non-networked grandMAs were among the party's equipment complement. One controlled the lighting fixtures, including various Martin MAC 2000 Profiles, Washes, conventional lights, Martin Big Lites and HES Studio Colors, which illuminated performers, as well as the Lombardi trophy and Super Bowl rings from the past 41 years.

Another grandMA controlled three Green Hippo Hippotizers, five Barco FLM-R20+ projectors, three Folsom Image Pros, a Xandar Fusion multi-image processor, and a Barco Encore with 16-way switcher, which displayed NFL player footage, logos and branding, and a custom video package on roof sails and a main screen. HDSDI signals delivered high-quality images. Custom software was provided by Control Freak Systems; Nocturne supplied the HD camera package. A third grandMA served as a backup unit.

"What a great team to work with. Spike Brandt, Patrick Dierson and Pat Brannon; these guys are very creative professionals. As Patrick noted, the networking and multi-user functions of the grandMA system made this work in a way that no other console could have," comments A.C.T Lighting president and CEO Bob Gordon."

 

Element Labs Reaches High Note with Cirrus on Dixie Chicks Tour

Element Labs, Inc. has announced that Dixie Chicks lighting and production designer Alex Reardon is using Element Labs Cirrus screens as the stage backdrop for the group's current tour. Nocturne Productions, Inc., supplier of video production services at the arena and stadium level, is providing and managing the screens.

"I am always coming up with bizarre ideas and knew that if I turned to EL for this project, I would get a very rapid response as to whether or not my vision was achievable," said Reardon. EL has the brainpower and resources to create innovative designs and the willingness to produce customized products," he continued. "With many manufacturers now fabricating low resolution drapes, I wanted something that was brighter and had better color resolution and knew EL would come up with really cool results. All of the products I have seen come out of EL to date, have been really interesting, groundbreaking, and very tourable - they're bulletproof," Reardon concluded.

Element Labs developed a large-scale LED video display that is based on a soft, flexible vinyl curtain called Cirrus. The standard configuration consists of two vinyl layers and is lightly frosted with die cut openings that offers a unique appearance. Any number of curtains can be seamlessly integrated into a larger display. Modular, lightweight and portable, Cirrus offers the flexibility to conform to a wide variety of applications. The pixels can be removed and installed into new curtains as required, preserving the main investment while allowing the screen to be completely updated with a new look.

The Dixie Chicks' stage backdrop consists of six Cirrus screens, each measuring 8 feet wide by 24 feet high, with a 75mm pixel pitch and die cut openings, giving way to high transparency. The screens have different functions throughout the performance. Depending on the song, the screens will play video, be lit in such a way that they appear metallic, or they will run I-MAG through media servers and then out to the screens. "One of the reasons we chose vinyl was so that we would be able to light the Cirrus screens from the back, having them catch all of the little cut outs that give them a sort of metallic sheen and reflectivity which looks absolutely great," said Reardon.

 

CyberHoist Makes the Moves for Madonna's Confession

September 2006

Under Nocturne Productions as lead video company, CyberHoist / InMotion 3D motion control system was at the heart of the action on Madonna's critically acclaimed - and highly controversial - Confessions World Tour, which has just ended in Tokyo.

The massive production, designed by LeRoy Bennett, follows Madonna's record-breaking 2004 Re-Invention tour, the most successful tour of that year, according to Billboard magazine, and takes her sonic and visual adventures into a new league.

Multiple set elements are in constant, high-precision motion throughout the show, including the giant "Jump" grid above the main catwalk, which descends for the song of that name, on which Madonna and her acrobatic dancers perform their amazing, high-speed jumps.

Other motion effects include a massive front gate for a fighting cage, a pole-ride (for Like a Virgin) and two fences above the smaller catwalks that lead to the left and right satellite stages, plus nine lighting pods and five custom 2006-styled "disco balls," each carrying numerous LED lights and a single VL500.

These all hang above the semi-circular hydraulic rising and rotating center-stage area, which has a similarly-shaped semi-circular truss carrying the new Element Labs Stealth LED "curtain" screen. Three more giant LED video screens and a giant mirrorball (which features a giant visual surprise of its own) complete the perpetual-motion rig that transforms the look of the stage from one song to the next, carried by some fabulous video footage and a wonderfully programmed lighting rig.

The millimetre-precise movements are provided by an impressively large CyberHoist system, featuring 40 active ½ ton CyberHoist CH500s and eight active full 1 ton CH1000 intelligent chain hoists. Three InMotion3D operating systems control the rig with split-second coordination, with safety taking top priority - the CyberHoist operator has visual sight of movements at all times to prevent any non-programmed motion (for example by a musician or dancer), while the numerous scenic elements of this enormous 'dance/musical/show' exchange positions at high speed.

All of this was supplied by Flashlight Rental of The Netherlands, part of the Ampco/Flashlight Group. The tour's lighting and rigging are supplied by PRG Concert Touring, with whom Flashlight are cooperating on this tour, while Nocturne Video supplied the video production.

Senior CyberHoist engineer Erik Berends and CyberHoist programmer Niels Peeters programmed the show during rehearsals at the Forum, while Martin Hoop and Ruud Werkhoven are the CyberHoist operator-engineers and Bill Settle and Dave Thisius additional operators on one of this year's most impressive touring performances. The production team was headed by production tour director Chris Lamb, production director Benny Collins, production manager Bob 'Hydro' Mullin and stage manager Jerry 'Hodge' Vierna. Kurt McLaughlin was advance safety rigger and Jeff Lucas was head rigger.

 

Talking With... David Lemmink, Director of Engineering on Bon Jovi's World Tour

By Linda Romanello - August 1, 2006 Source: Studio Monthly

It was early November 2005 when Nocturne Productions set off on the mega-city "Have A Nice Day" world tour with rock band Bon Jovi, and a brand new high definition video system. (link to entire article STUDIO DAILY)

 

Nocturne Productions Provides Video Extravaganza for Halftime Show at Super Bowl XXXIX

Nocturne Productions of San Francisco, California and Dekalb, Illinois provided the LED stages for Paul McCartney’s halftime performance at Super Bowl at the Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida on February 6, 2005.

Four 30' by 12' ramps filled with Barco I-6 LED tiles surrounded a 9' by 9' Barco I-6LED performance platform which slid open from the center to allow Sir Paul’s piano to rise hydraulically from below.  In addition Nocturne provided four Barco D7 21' diameter LED circles. The 12 lighting towers provided by PRG completed Roy Bennett’s design and filled out the rest of the field.

Graphic design by Kanpai’s Andee Kuroda was played back via five channels of hard drive utilizing one of Nocturne’s new Grass Valley Kayak production systems.  Image magnification came from five of Fox Sports Networks HD cameras and was directed by Nocturnes Co-CEO, Paul Becher.

650 volunteers were deployed to get the massive set in place on the playing field in a mere six minutes.  Staging and the lighting towers were designed and built by Tait Towers.  Nocturnes Dave Panscik, Dave Lemmink and Dave Neugebauer spearheaded technical expertise along with Ron Proesel of Vidicon.  As Bob Brigham, Nocturne's Co-CEO states, “This exercise was not for the weak of heart. Even with all the preparation and rehearsals just one loose connection could jeopardize the entire production.  Normally we can troubleshoot a problem in a few minutes.  We didn’t have that luxury here.  Anything less than perfect execution is unacceptable to Nocturne, Paul McCartney and the NFL.”