Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World - ALSO: LSA template
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http://plasa.me/lsajun21 June 2021
$10.00
Vax Live:
The Concert to
Reunite the World
ALSO:
Eurovision in Rotterdam
Renovating Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Martin by Harman
MAC Ultra Performance
Sennheiser IE
100 PRO Wireless
TELEVISION Copyright Lighting&Sound America June 2021 issue live link: http://plasa.me/lsajun21
The
Comeback Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Global Citizen VAX LIVE
22 • June 2021 • Lighting&Sound America
Vax Live: The Concert to he live events industry came roaring back to life on
Reunite the World
showcases an industry
getting back to business
By: David Barbour
T May 8 with the broadcast, seen on several net-
works and platforms, of Vax Live: The Concert to
Reunite the World. Designed to encourage wide-
spread vaccination against COVID-19, the event
also provided a shot in the arm to an industry that
has languished for more than a year. Produced by
Global Citizen—which, since 2012, has staged an
annual concert in New York’s Central Park to pro-
mote an end to extreme poverty worldwide—it pre-
sented an impressive array of music acts—among them
Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, and J
Balvin—as well as an array of celebrities including Ben
Affleck. Selena Gomez, Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman,
Olivia Munn, Sean Penn, Chrissy Teigen, and Prince Harry.
(Video sequences featured, among others, Joe and Jill
Biden, Kamala Harris, Emmanuel Macron, and Pope
Francis.) Performed for an invited audience of frontline
healthcare workers, it sent a strong message to a pan-
demic-weary world: We can do this.
In pursuit of the all-important goal of getting the world’s
population vaccinated, Vax Live raised over $300 million,
enough to buy 26 million doses of vaccine.
Photos this page: Courtesy of Anthony Bishop
Vax Live also provided a debut of sorts for SoFi
Stadium, the Inglewood, California sports-and entertain-
ment complex that provides a home base for the Rams
and Chargers NFL teams and is certain to become a major
destination for larger concert tours. In addition, the con-
Left: Jennifer Lopez leads a lively dance number. Above: The cert served as a family reunion of sorts for the members of
style of many video graphics was drawn from Global Citizen’s
typeface. The “O” in the logo provided the inspiration for the a top creative and technical team.
abundance of curves in the design.
The one-hour broadcast—a longer version is available
online at www.globalcitizen.org/en/media/vaxlive/—was
www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • June 2021 • 23
TELEVISION
Above: Sean Penn on the B stage. Note the Vari-Lite VL5LEDs on the deck. Opposite: Prince Harry in front of the curved video screen,
which consisted of 396 ROE Visual tiles, with processing by Brompton Technology SX40 units, and imagery delivered by a disguise
media server.
Left photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Global Citizen VAX LIVE); Right photo: Courtesy of Anthony Bishop
notable for its seamless blend of elements; even the com- The project wrapped up in April.)
mercial breaks, designed as public service messages, Wright began with a close look at SoFi Stadium, a par-
seemed inseparable from the overall effect. It also benefit- tially roofed venue, open on the sides, which, among other
ed from an elegant design. Production designer Tamlyn things, features “the oculus,” a two-sided oval video
Wright brought her experience in concert touring and tele- screen suspended from the roof over the field. Thus, she
vision awards shows to bear on the event, providing a says, “We explored the main questions of festival and sta-
concept that allowed staging, lighting, and video to work dium shows: No one had done a show there, so we start-
in unified fashion; it also made room for contributions from ed by measuring the sun and how and when it sets.”
other designers and creative directors associated with the Interestingly, Wright designed the NFL Honors in
individual musical acts. February, the only previous non-game-day event in the
Vax Live was a particularly satisfying project for Wright, stadium, which opened last September. “When we went to
one of the co-founders of EIR: COVID-19 Entertainment look it over,” she says, “there was a game on with no audi-
Industry Response, which marshaled industry resources to ence and a DJ piping in music. It was surreal, like an
provide, among other things, safety consultation and on- empty museum. This was in January, which was the worst
site management for productions, along with rapid testing, time of the pandemic in LA.” With Vax Live, she found her-
documentation assistance, personal protective equipment, self working on a production for an audience of 27,000—a
and emergency infrastructure for local governments and number reduced from the stadium’s full capacity of 70,000,
hospital systems. (The companies involved were All but, under the circumstances, a substantial crowd.
Access Staging and Production, Gallagher Staging, Go For The event’s design featured a circular stage backed by
Site Management, Joe Lewis Company, and Silent House. a curved video screen, a circular lighting rig overhead and
24 • June 2021 • Lighting&Sound America
four surrounding tiers of lighting that extended 50' in either which made strong use of the Global Citizen typeface.
direction. The use of the stadium’s video ribbon displays, Some acts brought their own scenic and/or video designs
and the oculus, added to the sense of being immersed. with them, most notably Lopez, who performed her first
The circle concept, Wright says, “was derived from the red number, “Sweet Caroline” (joined by her mother Guadalupe
‘O’ in the Global Citizen logo.” The profusion of curves was Rodríguez) in a setting Wright describes as an “enchanted
“seen as a hug for the audience,” she notes, adding, “it garden.” This look, a combination of scenery and video
was also a shape that complemented the space. And the imagery, was designed by Kley Tarcitano, working with
oculus worked as an echo of the idea.” Wright also cites Nappytabs, aka Tabitha and Napoleon D’umo, Lopez’s cre-
the influence of executive producer Casey Patterson, who ative directors. Balvin’s set piece, a sliced-in-half moon
emphasized branding and messaging, a point made in the that tilted and moved, was designed by Antony Ginandjar
powerful video graphics that were a key element. and Ashley Evan, aka The Squared Division, another team
All Access Staging and Productions built the main stage, of choreographers and creative directors.
ramps, barricades, among other thing; also involved was The idea of the Lopez set, Tarcitano says, “was an inspi-
another scenic house, Global Entertainment Industries. Bob ration from Jennifer and Tabitha.” The idea, he adds, was
Hughes, vice-president and senior and sales executive at to send a message of renewal: “Everybody was in a crazy
All Access, notes that the company worked in SoFi world last year and it was like the flowers were opening, a
Stadium on the NFL Honors, for which “we did a stage on new world. I started designing the garden, configuring it so
the roof. They wanted a helicopter shot of a singer up we could have a full orchestra onstage, too. To make
there. That was pretty intense.” He adds that the Vax Live Jennifer stand out, I put her on a platform, a stage on top
stage was 48' in diameter and 5' tall; a 56' diameter ring, of the existing stage, with a textured floor make it look like
placed 1' lower, served as a shelf for monitors and lighting. the garden has been there for 200 years. I worked with
The stage, he adds, “was a standard turntable setup. We Nicholas Militello, our screen content producer, so that
have a modular system with an 8' diameter hub that can everything would match.”
grow to 24', 48', and 56'.” Given a relatively small (for the To realize the set, Tarcitano adds, “I got thousands of
venue) audience, Wright says the decision was taken to samples of flowers. I think I bought every flower in LA.
reorient the stage to the spectators. “We turned the stage People were joking, ‘If you want to have a wedding in LA
90° toward the shallow end, which made for better seating today, it’s not possible. No flowers!’ I also added in
and brought those in the 100 level closer to the stage.” Swarovski crystals to give the flowers more sparkle.”
Wright helped conceive the video graphics for the show, Kate Moutenot, of CKM Productions, built the scenic
www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • June 2021 • 25
TELEVISION
J Balvin’s 20'-diameter moon set was built by ShowFX in four sections for easy delivery and assembly.
portions of Lopez’s garden-themed set. The flowers, she carved out of the foam and finally the entire piece was
says, “ended up being a bramble, a curly willow, and pam- covered with a polyurea hard coating.
pas grass with flowers, both real and artificial, including “The biggest challenge was they wanted it to rotate
baby’s breath, peonies, and other fun things. The entire set throughout the performance,” Mendoza adds. “We
was 29 plinths, with tubular structures [to hold the flow- approached the production designers about putting a
ers]. We put handles on them, so it was easy” to get them turntable in the stage, but it was too costly. So, we
on and offstage. Tarcitano says he designed the set to be reached into our automation rental inventory and integrat-
handled by the smaller number of stagehands mandated ed a motorized turntable bearing into the set piece, which
by COVID conditions. worked beautifully. Once the moon was positioned
David Mendoza, of scenic house ShowFX, says the onstage, it would pin into the deck, and rotate itself
company contributed scenic painted flooring, risers, and around.” The movements were pre-programmed and cued
fascias for the Lopez set, but its main contribution was the by a ShowFX Skjonberg motion control system.
showstopping J Balvin scenery. “Anthony and Ash pre- The video screen consisted of 396 ROE Visual tiles,
Photo: Courtesy of Anthony Bishop
sented their rendering package, with a moon sliced in half with imagery supplied by a disguise media server. Image
like a cantaloupe and a set of stairs in the middle. It was processing was handled by Brompton Technology SX40
20' in diameter. To get it across town to SoFi, and on and LED video processors. The screen and processing gear
offstage, we built it in four sections that could be assem- were supplied by Fuse Technical Group, with the media
bled quickly. The moon consisted of an aluminum frame server supplied by E-Ticket Studios. Much of the video
structure wrapped in wire mesh and coated with several content was created by Blink TV.
inches of a spray-on foam product. Next, craters were Others on hand were art director Anthony Bishop, Dave
26 • June 2021 • Lighting&Sound America
it was so emotional. There were doctors, nurses, EMTs,
other staff. It was such an electric feeling. We felt so
blessed.”
Speaking about Wright’s design, Kenny says, “I love cir-
cular truss. The stadium is huge, but when we put in the
rig and the seats, it felt smaller. It gave you that spiritual
feeling. We wanted it to look clean but not sterile.
Everybody was very positive about it.”
Kenny used the circle shapes to his advantage, wrap-
ping musical numbers in lighting effects. Lighting director
Mark Butts, says, “We got an hour with each act. We’d go
through the big-picture ideas, like color. We also set up
the previz system for them.” Because the show was con-
trolled with grandMA3 consoles, MA3D was used for pre-
visualization. “It’s embedded, it’s easy to use, and it inte-
grates easily into the MA ecosystem,” he adds.
Kenny created strikingly different looks for each act.
Lopez’s “Sweet Caroline” was bathed in warm colors.
Vedder’s numbers, “Corduroy” and “I Am a Patriot” fea-
tured stark white light and plenty of staccato strobe hits.
Balvin’s numbers, “Otra Noche Sin Ti” and “Tu Veneno,”
were moodier, thanks to a pervasive red wash. Foo
Fighters’ “Everlong” and “Back in Black” featured classic
rock lighting, back by video imagery that mimicked an old-
school PAR- can look. Lopez’s closer, “Ain’t Your Mama,”
was marked by plenty of colorful eye candy.
“We lit quite a few different styles,” said Kenny.
“Jennifer Lopez was all gracious and warm with her moth-
er on stage. We had an artsy vibe for J Balvin, a punk one
for Eddie Vedder, and the pure rock of the Foo Fighters.
We programmed a lot of intricate cues for Jennifer Lopez
and busked for the Foo Fighters, who continued perform-
Meyers and his team from Diversified Production Services, ing for the pure fun of it even after the broadcast ended.
staging supervisors Anthony Houser (of DPS), head stage “Jason Uchita, Mark Butts, and Erin Anderson, our
manager John Esposito, broadcast technical director John lighting directors and programmers, along with the rest of
Pritchett, screens content producers Austin Reading and our crew, did an excellent job managing all the different
Lisa Pritchett, and Carsten Weiss and Jack Blacketer, of demands made on them,” Kenny adds. “Our rig also had
the rigging firm C2W. to be nimble to handle everything; going forward on tours,
With approximately nine weeks between conception and I will be looking to go all LED.”
doors, Wright adds, “We felt the heat underneath us. The The lighting rig, supplied by 4Wall Entertainment,
most tenuous part was the audience capacity.” During this included 281 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK3 Washes,
time, as the number of infections dropped, the size of the 183 Robe MegaPointes, 79 GLP JDC1s, 45 Chroma-Q
audience was in flux. Global Citizen and iHeartMedia—the Color Force IIs, 40 Claypaky Sharpys, 22 GLP impression
latter an executive producer along with the Ad Council, X4 Bar 20s, 22 Robe BMFL WashBeams, 16 Claypaky
YouTube Originals, and Live Nation—worked with the local Scenius Unicos, eight Vari-Lite VL5LEDs, four TMB Solaris
government to stay on top of the situation. This was also the Flare XLs, seven Robe BMFL FollowSpots, six Lycian 1295
first time SoFi Stadium had hosted a crowd of any size, and it followspots, six Robert Juliat Dalia 860 330W cyc lights,
happened under COVID conditions. “A lot of work was done eight Ultratec Radiance hazers, and six MDG theONE
to make queuing bearable,” Wright says. “Plus, it was the first atmospheric generators. Control was via three MA Lighting
time the building’s staff had to deal with large crowds.” grandMA3 full-size consoles, one grandMA3 light, 15
grandMA3 NPUs, and 15 TMB ProPlex IQ Two 88
Lighting Ethernet-DMX nodes.
Lighting designer Tom Kenny says, of the experience, “It’s The Maverick MK3 Washes were placed on the over-
amazing how positive it was. When the audience came in, head circular truss, the upstage curved wall, and the floor
www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • June 2021 • 27
TELEVISION
Lopez’s enchanted garden set featured real and artificial flowers combined with video imagery. Above, the star with her mother.
in the gulf between the audience and stage. “Because of ture and it worked really well for us.”
safety protocols, we had to leave 20' between the stage Kenny adds that he worked closely with executive pro-
and the first row of the audience,” Kenny says. “We put ducers Ken Ehrlich, Casey Paterson, and Lee Rolontz,
Mavericks in that space and shot the light straight up, director Ryan Polito, and consulting lighting designers Dan
which created a great concert feel for those in attendance, Hadley (Foo Fighters) and Kille Knobel (Eddie Vedder) on
while coming off very well on camera.” These units, adds, the look of the show. “We also had some great conversa-
“are perfectly well-suited for a stadium of this size. We ran tions with the artists on-site. It was wonderful to have Dan
them at 50% for most of the show. They stood up very and Kille around, as they coordinated all the screens looks
Above photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Global Citizen VAX LIVE)
well to our bright video wall, which was run at 10%, so we and even jumped in when the Foo Fighters carried on
were able to coordinate lighting and video without any- playing, busking with Mark. A wonderful community spirit!”
thing washing out anything else.” Butts adds that Global Citizen set the tone, which
Butts says the MegaPointes “were workhorses for explains the design’s lack of clutter and glitz. “Global
effects stuff on the back wall and on the ground. They’re Citizen is a very serious organization, and its message is
great. We needed a ton of small units with a few features. very serious,” he notes. “It was the concert to reunite the
We could put 200 in the air, and they looked good.” The world, not a headbanging spectacle. It was just so cool to
JDC1s, he adds, provided “extra boost,” especially during be invited. Things like this don’t come along too often. It
Vedder’s numbers. The VL5LEDs—a unit that debuted just was such an emotional thing. We looked at it as a tem-
before the pandemic hit—were used at the B stage, which plate for everybody else, a positive piece of news.”
was largely occupied by presents like Penn, Gomez, and
Teigen. Butts says the team made use of the units’ Sound
Dichro*fusion blades features, which includes an LED on Simon Welch, in charge of the event’s sound, says that
each blade. “It makes a shimmery effect. It’s a unique fix- SoFi Stadium “is quite mind-blowing when you first walk
28 • June 2021 • Lighting&Sound America
in. The oculus structure houses a very well-designed and IO capability, on top of the sound quality, made them
house PA, which is capable of integrating in many different a very easy choice,” Welch says. Indeed, the consoles
ways with whatever design a show would need. The house seemed to cover all necessary bases. “We ran a Waves
crew is incredibly helpful. They know their system well and server at the front of house but only at the request of one
worked very well with us on combining the house PA and artist. Other than that, there was no outboard gear
the PA we brought in. used.”Unsurprisingly, the musical artists brought their own
“The challenge of multiple acts of varying content mics. The presenters were fitted with Sennheiser D9000
shouldn’t be such a big ask,” he notes. “Good coverage wireless mics with Neumann KK 204 cardioid capsules.
and a well-tuned PA will suit every engineer. The idea that For in-ears, everyone had Shure PSM 1000 RFs. “One
one type of artist requires more subs or more speakers is artist had more than 70 packs, between performers and
a myth. Provided you have the venue covered evenly and dancers,” Welch notes. “We did have a ring of floor
the PA is well-tuned with the right number of boxes for the wedges surrounding the stage. And both Foo Fighters and
venue, allowing for adequate headroom, an engineer will Eddie Vedder brought in their own touring wedge pack-
be able to achieve whatever result suits the artist. Each ages.” Gear was supplied by Firehouse Productions.
artist was very different in terms of content, but all sound- The sound department was connected to the broadcast
ed great without any sacrifice or compromise.” truck via analog connections. “Music Mix Mobile dropped
The event’s dedicated loudspeaker rig consisted of JBL a couple of their LAWO pre-amp racks for the mc² 56
VT25-II-CS line arrays and VTX G28 subs, chosen, he [audio production console]. The Summit Denali production
says, for “the versatility and even throw of the system. As truck had 48-input [Calrec] Hydra racks at multiple loca-
the flying points were kind of dictated by the production tions throughout the venue to make distribution easier.”
design, we found ourselves needing to wrap some of the Like everyone else on the team, Welch was thrilled to be
arrays harder and faster than maybe we would have liked, back on the job and working on such a meaningful gig. “It
and this system allows that very well. Jamie Pollack, the was a real pleasure being back doing what we all love! It
PA designer and front-of-house mixer, worked very hard was a great team effort to accomplish a great show.”
with the array prediction software and tuning tools to cre- By all accounts, the result was a heart-stirring success,
ate an even, high-quality experience for all.” It was surely staged for a wildly appreciative audience. Wright says, “It
helpful that the oculus sound rig consists of roughly 260 was the best of festival shows combined with broadcast
JBL loudspeakers and Crown amplifiers. spectacle and corporate events. For a lot of us, it felt like a
Control at the front of house and monitors was handled moment of redemption.”
by DiGiCo SD7 Quantum consoles. “Their infrastructure
Right photo: Courtesy of Tamlyn Wright
This rendering shows the orientation of the set inside SoFi Stadium, along with the curved video screen and four tiers of lighting.
www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • June 2021 • 29
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