Supporting the diverse marathon at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (there were 14 inductees, plus an array of special guest performers) was a flexible rig from 4Wall Entertainment that featured 457 CHAUVET Professional fixtures.
The production design for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2023 Induction Ceremony was crafted by many hands. The stage designer was Bruce Rogers. On the lighting side, there were designer Allen Branton, lighting directors Felix Peralta, Kevin Lawson and George Gountas, as well as head gaffer Alex Flores. The compelling video content was created and managed by Bianca Moncada and the team at Darmah.
“The people involved in this production have been taking care of the program for many years,” said Branton. “This show was streamed live for the first time, so more rehearsals were needed, but the time allotted to us was the same as last year. This called for an all-out team effort. Everyone stepped up. For example, Alex Flores is always a key man in these death marches. He had to design the installation and bring a huge lighting system to 100-percent readiness in a couple of days.”
Color STRIKE M fixture. The lighting team placed 113 Color STRIKE M fixture motorised blinder/strobe/effects units in their rig. “We used them for excitement sometimes and beauty/accent at other times,” said Branton.
Peralta elaborated: “We had a lot of Color STRIKE Ms available to us, so we could always use the right amount at the right time. We had the majority of them behind the blow-through LED Screens. The remainder of them were peppered all throughout the audience house truss. They pumped up excitement during segments like Missy Elliot’s performance, and added a very delicate touch to other moments, like the George Michael remembrance number.”
Also in the rig were 30 Maverick MK3 Profile fixtures, which were used to provide key and back lighting. “We relied on them for pretty much all of our key lighting,” said Peralta. Providing geometric frameworks for the stage were 243 EPIX Strip fixtures, while COLORado PXL units outlined the stage apron.
Central to the design concept was a long, horizontally-oriented video wall, which displayed a variety of IMAG and other images. Part blow-through and part nontransparent surface, the video wall changed the aura and apparent shape of the stage by displaying different patterns, which ranged from the classical to contemporary. Additionally, the wall added warmth to the stage with historic images of legendary stars like Willie Nelson.
“Certain portions of the screen array were not blow-through, such as those that were used as background for trophy presentation,” said Branton. “Higher resolution was desired in these areas, so the close-up backgrounds wouldn’t look pixelated. Similarly, the big centre screen that played the career film packages was opaque, providing high resolution for those film packages.”
The configuration of the video backdrop, as well as the rest of the design, was created with versatility in mind. “The ‘to-the-viewer’ architectural shape of the design allowed us to take the shape of the lighting and video story in many directions,” said Peralta.
