For the sixth straight year, the AVI-SPL Creative Show Services team will provide all video and lighting for the United Way Halftime show during the Detroit Lions/ Green Bay Packers Thanksgiving Day game. The show features a performance by Nickelback.

Check out the rendering below for an idea of what to expect. The design includes a low-resolution 40mm LED screen for the set and high-resolution 15mm LED for the main screen. We’ll be creating video to play back through the 2 Hippotizer media servers, and running all of the technology. For lighting, we have tons of LED colorblaze strips and 80 moving lights! It may be a short performance, but it includes some of the latest technologies being used not only in entertainment, but in corporate events as well. Impress your friends, tell them what they’re going to see before they see it!

We hope you enjoy the show!

AVI-SPL Creative Show Services (CS²) provided a custom projection, lighting and audio system for Pavilion XXVI at the Tampa Museum of Art. Multiple large format projection surfaces were fitted exactly to room dimensions, creating a digital environment that surrounded the attendees. Matrix stereo feeds and custom LED lighting complimented the videos displayed on each screen.

The concept was to immerse attendees in a garden from another world. CS² designed a display system to support video artist Marc Dahl’s “Fauxments.” Fauxments are a term coined by Marc, meaning photographed moments. Each Fauxment is a combination of still photography and live video. These in particular were created by Marc with garden subject matter. One Fauxment displays a typical garden statue with a never ending stream of water. Another Fauxment displays a book whose pages ruffle every so often in the wind. Each Fauxment was a different view of the same garden, together making a panoramic environment for museum visitors.

Click here to view more photos of this event.

Several technical hurdles had to be overcome to achieve the desired look of this event. Video displays were not in typical ratios of 4:3, 16:9 or even 16:10. Each of the six surfaces had to be custom tailored with four of them receiving vertically mounted projection. Content was run from six individual Apple iMac Playback Pro devices. Each Playback Pro served a separate screen with picture and audio, for a total of with six standalone projection surfaces.

Audio was a particular concern because each projection surface required individual stereo playback. Mixing was handled by a Yamaha LS9 that allowed for a matrix of 16 inputs and 14 outputs. “Sound engineer Mario Rivera choose 12 Meyer UPM active monitors because of their low profile and ability to focus sound to a specific area,” explained Lead Audio Technician Chris Paraig. Audio needed to truly represent a stereo field but not overlap with the display right next to it.

Colorblast LED lights were programmed to compliment the video, casting a vivid but subtle hue over the adjacent museum surfaces. During video passages that had blue accents, the LED lights responded with a spot-on representation of that color. This programming was accomplished by a HOG 500 console with multiple looks that changed in tandem with the video. The overall experience was amazing, capturing the imagination of the attendees. Several museum patrons agreed that this was the best installation to date. This event showcased a true artistic marriage of motion graphics and display technology that only CS² could accomplish.

Click here to view a brief video  from artist Marc Dahl’s Pavilion >>

Last month, our Creative Show Services (CS2) team once again delivered a fantastic production – one that offered the glitz of Hollywood-style red carpet glamour for the prestigious recognition of Tampa Bay’s top business professionals.

The event was a rewarding affair for the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce’s 31st Annual Small Business of the Year Awards. More than 850 were in attendance for the big affair on Sept. 16, held at the Tampa Convention Center. In collaboration with main sponsor Sam’s Club and media sponsors St. Petersburg Times and Bay News 9, platinum sponsor CS2 kicked off the “Spreading the News” theme with a dazzling array of spotlights, accent lighting and spirited theme music.

The evening was filled with on-the-spot audience interviews, lots of cheering, and taped vignettes featuring “news” style stories about all 18 individual finalist and their companies. Prior to the announcement of each winner, CS2 played taped segments featuring several popular Bay News 9 reporters — provided by BayNews9 — to help reveal the top honorees.

It was truly an impressive night, but what better way to tell the story than from the perspective of one our CS2 top producers, Brenda Curry?

“We’ve been doing the event for the Tampa Bay Small Business of the Year awards for more than 10 years now, and for most of those years, we have also done the video production. It’s always a combination of exciting, exhilarating and exhausting. Making it to 18 locations in five days, with our little three person crew (that includes me and two video guys – Larry Elliott and Steve Seckar) – is always a challenge, but the end result makes it all worthwhile!”

“Going on location, without any prior site visit to assess the situation, means that we are going in and making on the spot determinations of what to shoot, where to start and how to best get all of the shots that we need, in one hour. This year, we started out at a huge plant that makes highway road signs, and ended up near the end of the shooting at the Westshore Yacht Club, getting shots of the head of a company working outside on their laptop, with a view of the Bay.”

“Going from one very different situation to another keeps us alert! We’re always trying to quickly come up with new and interesting shots, so that each video has a bit of the personality of the company or leader being represented, while still having some continuity to the idea of ‘small business’. And with the theme ‘Start Spreading the News,’ we were always trying to find some connection with that concept.”

“At each location, we got on-camera statements about what each company would want their ‘headline’ to be, if they were on the news the next day, and we incorporated those comments into the videos, providing a perfect tie in to the theme, and putting a personal touch on each of the videos.”

“Of course, the videos are just a small part of what we do. Staging and producing the event takes the efforts of an entire team of people, starting with Account Manager, Steve Howard and Creative Director, Bob Foley. From pre-production all the way through the load out and post production, this event would not have been successful without the creative talents of AVI-SPL employees: Rob Seagert – Project Manager; Beth Moody – Production Coordinator & Stage Manager; Mark Doolittle– Graphic Artist; Larry Elliott – Videographer/Editor; Chris Jones – Lighting Director/Set Designer; Mario Rivera – Audio Director and Ben Conner – Post Production Video Editor. In addition, regular freelancers rounding out the team included: Mary Beth Dudich – Scriptwriter/Graphics Operator; Mario Mora – A2; Carlos Borges and Dan Doidge – Video Engineers; and Kenny Strawn and Ken Halliwell – Camera Operators.”

“And we always greatly appreciate and value the services of our entire Rental Warehouse team. We couldn’t do it without them!”

For more on this great event, be sure to check out the fantastic photos taken by freelance photographer Carrie Wildes!

Our Creative Show Services team teamed with Meeting Professionals International’s (MPI) Tampa Bay chapter to host an After 5 networking event at our headquarters in Tampa. The event drew more than 200 Tampa Bay area event professionals for the largest After 5 event in the chapter’s history!

Guests mixed and mingled while they checked out the demonstrations scattered throughout the venue. Most popular were the 3D Media Mapping wall, Interactive Digital Signage with Tablets, Intelligent Lighting and, of course, the bar (always a hit at after-hours social gatherings!).

Check out this behind-the-scenes video to see all of the cool new event technology we showcased at the event.

What was your favorite technology from the event?

Click here to see a gallery of photos from the event.

Planning your own event? We can help! Give us a call: 800.282.6733

The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards program celebrated its 25^th year anniversary on June 16, 2011 in Orlando and paired up with our Creative Show Services (CS2) team to ensure the event was a hit.

The CS2 team created over 30 videos that played during the evening, partnered with a live band, and even threw in some pyrotechnics and confetti cannons to add to the excitement. Utilizing a Spyder Video Processor, a variety of content including video, animation and PowerPoint graphics was projected on 3 large vertical screens interlaced with shoji panels in the center of the stage. This background content was perfectly synchronized with camera shots and was a great complement to the outboard 16×9 screens.

The audience which included Wayne Huzienga and Tom James from Raymond James Financial was impressed, but better yet, the evening was recapped by Ernst & Young’s Program Manager as follow: “Last night was awesome!  Thank you Thank you Thank you!  All your hard work and incredible professionalism resulted in a fabulous night.”

A vivid display of light and architecture elicits “oohs” and “ahhs” from young and old alike. Last week’s Lights On Tampa 2011 celebration brought artists from around the world to spotlight downtown Tampa, literally. The Creative Show Services team worked with Artist Pablo Valbuena to project media art onto a parking garage using large-scale projectors. He used “light as a physical material, and appears to build space in the way that bricks build walls,” according to Lights On Tampa. His project is titled N27°57’00” W82°27’41” (named for the Poe garage’s latitude and longitude), and “is an investigation of light, space and perception.”

Working with the Lights On Tampa team was a great experience, and we hope to be able to work with the city on more of their cultural events!

Andrea Bocelli makes his only North American appearance in Feb 2011 with a concert on Valentine’s Day

And AVI-SPL  was in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida at the BankAtlantic center to support him. Through 12 years together , the team from Creative Show Services, in collaboration with Gelb Productions, has provided everything from audio, lighting, to staging for Bocelli’s various appearances. “A Night for Lovers” debuted on February 14^th featuring Ana Maria Martinez, Heather Headley, the Orchestra Miami and the Master Chorale of South Florida. AVI-SPL’s John Orchard, Executive Producer and Production Designer for this event, working together with Creative Director, Bob Foley created an atmosphere to be remembered. Along with 7 LED screens, 2  rear-projected screens, a couple of Hippo media servers, and a fabulous crew, this show was topped off with a finale including 120lbs of custom heart-shaped confetti  blasted through the audience.

For the 2011 Pro Bowl in Hawaii, AVI-SPL provided digital video content, controlled with the Playback Pro Plus.  Our Operator, John Orchard, ran all content for the televised pre-game featuring the Goo Goo Dolls.  The main display device was an 8mm WinVision LED video screen in the shape of the Pro Bowl trophy.  This event is just one of many entertainment events that AVI-SPL has been a part of over the last several months.