A New Playing Field By: Sharon Stancavage

CLOSE-UP: STREAMING

In a nod to professional wrestling, there was a high-impact stage for player entrances.

Welcome to the world of Fan Controlled Football

an Controlled Football [FCF] is a different type of live Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this league is the fact e n a L

arena football; it’s interactive, streamed online on the the fans get to call the plays on the field as well.” c M

gamer platform Twitch, and involves fans like never Production/lighting designer Tom E. Marzullo, of Out of u a

F h S

before. According to the website, “Fans control essentially Our Minds Creative Services, says, “In terms of the teams, : s o t

every aspect of this league. Before the season, the fans it is seven on seven [players], and it is played on a 50-yard o h p

l l

voted on rule changes, uniforms, the draft and more. field. Each week, they draft from the player pool to create A

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The player entrance was surrounded by VISS by Absen VX5 LED Marzullo designed a field of play that was 221' long by 95' wide, panels. Chauvet Professional Vesuvius units provided the fog. as opposed to a traditional football field, which is 200' by 85'.

the teams for the following Saturday. [This season,] there work for the [arena football team] Georgia Force when they were two games on Saturday night back-to-back, and they first started in this building. When the planning for FCF did a Wednesday draft day, plus a series of weekly shoul - began, they immediately said, ‘We won’t have any problems der programming on four different TV sets.” with that building; we need to go there.’ We have a history When Marzullo was approached with the project, he was of football, and we already had dasher walls and base draw - a bit hesitant: “I’ve done a lot of sports, like the 1994 World ings for them to work off.” The venue and FCF were a natu - Cup Opening and Closing Ceremonies in Washington, DC ral fit, he adds. “There was very little learning curve; the only and Super Bowl events in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Miami, difference was how they wanted to set everything and the but, initially, it didn’t feel like something in my lane.” fact they weren’t using kicking nets. However, when he met the executives at Crazy Legs “A normal arena football field would be 200' by 85', and Productions and they laid out the concept, his attitude they would put a pad in front of and on top of the dasher,” changed dramatically. “I recognized them as people that I Humphreys continues. “What Tom came up with was a field would like to work with,” he says. “Their methodology is to that is 221' long by 95' wide once you put in the sidelines. hire good people and let them do what they do; in a word, We took out our dasher walls and our first two rows of they’re empowering. It also helped that I am very fond of seats. Tom built an 8'-tall, padded banner dasher around working with Roddy White, the game day producer. After the bowl that we used for lighting and camera equipment.” many years of working with him while he was with the The dasher walls were constructed by Robert Achlimbari, Atlanta Falcons, I trusted his judgement implicitly.” at All Access Staging and Productions. “I’m very safety con - Last September, Marzullo and his go-to art director, JJ scious, and JJ, Robert and I really spent a lot of time think - James, put together a proposal for Crazy Legs and FCF. “JJ ing about how to keep these players safe,” Marzullo says; has a background in art direction for the camera, and I hence the creation of the custom dashers. “They had cus - bridge between sports, live, and movies,” Marzullo says. tom panels of 4” foam behind each one of those graphic “They didn’t give a lot of direction in terms of creative. They panels. Robert devised an ingenious deck system that sent me examples of streetball; they wanted it to look like straddled the permanent house seating to support the something that urban young gamers would relate to. In the padded panels rigid enough to withstand multiple 300lb end, I believe that we turned it into something that looked players slamming into the pads at a full-on run..” larger than it really was, and I give credit to the team for In a nod to professional wrestling, there was a high- making it happen.” impact stage for player entrances. “I had the house provide FCF found a home for the inaugural season in Infinite staging,” Marzullo notes. “I did a pathway behind the LEDs Energy Arena, located in Duluth, Georgia, near Atlanta. Neal and had All Access provide a custom ramp landing and a Humphreys, director of event services at the arena, says. ramp that’s grated in the center, so it looks like a big stage.” “One of FCF’s lead founders, who was in charge of every - The player entrance was surrounded by VISS by Absen thing, used to work for the Arena Football League. I used to VX5 LED panels. “The resolution of the video was 5.7mm,”

48 • April 2021 • Lighting &Sound America Marzullo says. “It’s what we use on most tours. In this one, events.” Marzullo adds, “We used their competition light - we got away with a 5.7 [resolution] on camera because ing system as well as their ribbon and the big board above there are no real close shots focused on the video; basically, the ribbon. If we had to put in the competition lights as I had video on the center, angled up high, and scenic panels well, it would have been incredibly expensive, and we below.” The scenic panels seen in the player entrance area would have had trim issues.” and echoed in the broadcast booth are from Atomic. “I use The Sports Lights 2 system, Marzullo says, “is controlled Atomic a lot,” he adds. “Their stuff is great, it’s easy to use, off a laptop; the system does not take a DMX cable in. It’s impeccably designed, the service is perfect, and the ship - an individual secure network to all the lights, which are indi - ping department gets it to you on time.” vidually controlled” via custom software. The panels were supplied by IC Video; the computer- Lighting director/programmer Rob Nelson notes that the based media server was from Braintrust Creative. “The sys - intention was to integrate the two systems. “But we learned tem we used is based on Renewed Vision’s PVP media early on that the house lighting wanted to be by itself. So, server software,” says Drew Kimball, principal of Brain Trust we treated them as two different stations working in tan - Creative. “It’s running on a custom Mac-based system, with dem. The producer called them both at the same time.” 12G-SDI I/O, from Blackmagic Design. We’re able to drive Marzullo’s lighting system was provided by Atlanta-based about ten outputs to feed the various production video sur - MAGNUM. “Because we were staying in one location and I faces, and to send RossTalk commands to drive the in- wasn’t sure what I would change, I was a little reluctant to house Daktronics system that handles the various in-room use a company without a significant inventory in Atlanta,” he displays and ribbons. [RossTalk is a plain text-based proto - explains. “Magnum has been great,” Nelson says. “This was col that allows control of Ross Video switchers from an a six-to-seven-week gig; we had one light go down and external device.] Additionally, we’re outputting LTC [linear they replaced it pretty much immediately.” time code] to the lighting console to synchronize lighting The entertainment rig included 16 Martin by Harman cues. We’re also receiving a few lines of live video, via SDI, MAC Axiom Hybrids, 30 GLP JDC1 strobes, and 12 GLP from production, which allows us to send that live video to impression X-Bar 20s. “I love the Axioms, JDC1 strobes, any surface in the venue on the fly.” and X-Bar 20s,” Mazullo says. Nelson adds, “I’ve traditional - There was, Kimball says, a huge advantage to the PVP ly been a Martin person, but GLP has been slowly winning media server software: “PVP, because it is cue-based, me over with their effects lights. I’ve been really impressed enables us to fire any look at any time, without regard to by the JDC1s on this; they provided color for the rig.” He what existing content is currently being played. There’s no adds that the X-Bar 20s were an effective source of eye need for us to program timelines or track cues, which is crit - candy. The rig also included eight Robe BMFL WashBeams, ical in a sporting environment, when any cue may be need - six ETC Source Four Lekos, and two Reel EFX hazers. ed with instant recall. It also can play back pretty much any Marzullo also included traditional PARs in the rig. “I type of media, without the need to re-encode—so last- chose not to cover the seats, because we would not be minute files and additions are easy to add in on the fly.” fooling anyone, and it was expensive,” he says. “At the end Marzullo adds, “I like this media server a lot actually; it’s of the day, people would look at it and say, ‘There’s nobody very flexible and very cost-effective. in the arena,’ because nobody wants to get COVID. It “To the left of the player entrance area was the Wendy’s looked barren to me, so I asked [Magnum], ‘Do you have a Hot Mic booth,” Marzullo continues. “It had a TV monitor bunch of PAR cans laying around?’” Twenty 1,000W six-can inside so that when the players had something they wanted PAR bars are evenly spaced in the venue’s lower bowl, pro - to celebrate, they ran in there and got a video of the fans, viding, he says, “a hint of sizzle that didn’t break the bank.” and the fans could see them. To the right of that, on the The arena has ten house followspots: four Strong opposite sideline was an owner’s box custom made by All Gladiator 3s and six Strong Super Troupers. “They were Access.” using two 3Ks for the game,” Humphreys says. “Those are original to the building and we have them serviced yearly by Lighting the supplier, which is Southeastern Searchlight here in The games at Infinite Energy Arena made use of the town.” The followspots were the workhorse of the rig. venue’s lighting system plus an entertainment rig. “A few “There is no live audience in the traditional sense since it is years ago,” Humphreys says, “we put in a new lighting all for the camera,” Nelson says. “It allows us to make it system, Sports Lights 2, from LED North America. There video game-like; your player scores, the spot tracks him, are 172 fixtures mounted in the air, pre-aimed at the mid - and, as the celebration is going on, you have the highlight dle of the field and covering the building from one on him. They could go wherever they wanted, and my spots end to the other. They are color-changing and can change could track them.” color temperature. We’ve used them for sporting The hot mic area featured six Color Force IIs by Chroma- events, corporate meetings, graduations, and other Q. “They’re a go-to favorite of mine,” Nelson says. “I’ve

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Infinite Energy Arena makes use of a Sports Lights 2 system from LED North America.

used them a great deal and I trust them with almost any Matthews was on-site, doing rig maintenance. uplighting job that I might encounter.” Also used in this area Marzullo says, “I don’t know enough about the TV light - were Kino Flo 2' singles and doubles. ing part of it, so I asked Peter to consult, and we used The lighting for the field of play was located on top of the Cloud to Ground, the TV production supply house. He and I 8'-high dasher walls. “We had four Robe BMFLs on either go all the way back to Prince, KISS, and Bob Seger days. side,” Nelson says. “We used them primarily for aerials. We Bob did the commentator booth, and then [off-site] shoulder could pull lights from the sides that were out of the camera sets, with the help of gaffers Stewart Ebneter and Bob angle to light things like the owner’s box in the stand and Shuford. Bob Peterson was super-helpful in terms of what the coin toss.” he thought might work.” Nelson used two MA Lighting grandMA3 consoles run - Special effects, in the form of six Chauvet Professional ning in MA2 mode. “We had a full-size, a light, and an NPU Vesuvio units—which illuminates bursts of water-based fog backstage,” he says. Because the games were transmitted with advanced RGBA+UV LED color mixing—were supplied live on the Twitch platform, he planned for every eventuality: by Strictly FX . “They are popular, and we literally have hun - “It’s all about redundancy. If one console failed, I could walk dreds in stock. If you don’t want to use C02 it’s something six steps to the other one, and I could continue running the that gives you a bump for an economical show,” says Ted show without missing a beat.” Maccabee, principal at Strictly FX. The units were located Marzullo was also prepared for any emergency. “I had around the player introduction ramps. two competent programmers and operators from day one,” he says. “If Rob suddenly came down with COVID and Audio couldn’t be there, then Geoffrey [Matthews, the backup] Infinite Energy Center is home to a Danley Sound Labs SM could step in. He knew everything that Rob did. It was more Series PA and a Midas DL150 Series Fixed Format I/O expensive than what I wanted, but it’s better in a situation unit. Humphreys explains, “There are six [speaker] clusters where you need a backup.” that shoot down onto the turf itself, then there are 14 clus - “I tried to make sure this show file and the workflow were ters that shoot around the bowl and are underhung. We easy for Geoff,” Nelson says. “I made sure it would be easy turned off the underhung speakers and the speakers for him to walk in and run a show.” Throughout the season, shooting towards the broadcast locations at center field

50 • April 2021 • Lighting &Sound America and at the south end corner where they do their inter - views. In total, 28 speaker cabinets were being used.” Control was via a digital Behringer X32 console which has 40 inputs, 25 busses with 32 programmable Midas pre - amps, and an iPad/iPhone remote control. “It’s done every - thing we’ve needed,” Humphreys says. “This is very simple, because [the console] is used as a pass-through for one microphone. The DiGiCo SD9Bin the [Ross Mobile Production] truck was tied into the Behringer to be able to get to the in-house speakers.” RF tech Cody Denison, of In Concert Productions, says, “Each player with a helmet cam provided by Action PAR cans were placed on bars in the seats, with moving lights resting on top of the custom dashers. Streamer had a lavalier microphone. We had nine [eight active and one spare] Lectrosonics LMb A1 band transmit - ters on the individual players with the cameras mounted into their helmets. When you pulled up an individual helmet cam on that specific player, you’d hear their audio.” He adds, “The user-friendliness of some other systems definitely exceeds Lectrosonics, but there are things that the Lectrosonics can do that other systems can’t.” Working with the Lectrosonics belt packs are Sanken COS-11 lavaliers. “They are pretty rugged,” Denison says. “I do a lot of reality game shows, like Titan Games and the Go-Big Show ; we use [the Sanken products] a lot because of their durability. They’re also very transparent-sounding microphones with a really flat response sound.” A Lectrosonics HHa handheld RF mic with an HHC cardioid condenser element is used by the sideline reporter.

Dealing with COVID There were, of course, COVID protocols in place. “The league, the TV production company, IATSE, and the arena all had a different set of protocols they wanted to follow, The Wendy's Hot Mic Booth. so it was very complex,” Marzullo says. “Every stagehand had to go to a designated COVID test site or go get their own test done 72 hours before the call. It made scheduling everything all the more difficult.” Once the load-in was finished, a more stringent bubble protocol came into play. “Infinite Energy Arena is not like most arenas where you have locker rooms on the left and right; they’re all on one side. They created a bubble on the locker room side. Once the players arrived, we couldn’t go into the area. When I had 60 crew members coming in to build this stuff, and they were used to being in that building in one way, we had to kind of retrain them to do it the other way. There was a whole testing process as well, and we were tested twice a week.” This year, the FCF system stayed in the venue; that might not be the case next year. “I built this production to go in one time and to go out one time. For future seasons, I’m sure I’ll have to pack this like a rock show. We’ll likely either move it in and move it out or move it from one city to anoth - er,” concludes Marzullo. The FCF season concluded in March; news of the next season can be found online at fcf.io. All Access built a custom ramp for the players’ entrance.