Copyright Lighting&Sound America February 2018 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html TECHNICAL FOCUS: INSTALLATION

Above and opposite: The moving screens constantly reconfigure throughout the film, with lighting providing additional effects. The film, by the late Jonathan Demme, pulls together some of the greatest musical performances at the Rock Hall’s induction ceremonies. Long Live Rock

By: David Barbour

The Power of Rock Experience, at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, combines video, lighting, sound, and automation in a unique musical celebration

Contemporary music history has a galvanizing new show- theatre, guests view a 12-minute concert film, directed by case in The Power of Rock Experience, which opened at Jonathan Demme, that edits together a cascade of classic Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on July 1. A three- performances. (Demme, who died in April, was a prolific part experience, it begins on the museum’s top floor, on the director of rock documentaries, including the classic Stop bridge outside the newly named Connor Theater, with a Making Sense.) montage of scenes from various Hall of Fame induction cer- Beginning with Ruth Brown, lending her signature sass to

emonies, presented on a dynamic LED screen. Inside the “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean” and concluding All photos: ©BRC Imagination Arts

80 • February 2018 • Lighting&Sound America with Prince’s stunning rendition of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” the film is a nonstop procession of show-stoppers—performed by, among others, Stevie Wonder, Chuck Berry, Joan Jett, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Deborah Harry, Metallica, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, and Green Day—aided and abetted by lighting effects, moving screens, and a sound system guaranteed to blow audiences out into nearby Lake Erie. For the grand finale, guests step into Say It Loud! story booths, where they are “interviewed” by such previous Hall of Fame inductees as Smokey Robinson, Michelle Phillips, Mary Wilson, and Alice Cooper. The Power of Rock Experience is part of an ongoing upgrade to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, under the aegis of BRC Imagination Arts, the Burbank, California-based experience design and production agency. Christian Lachel, executive vice president and creative director at BRC, says, “We started working with the museum’s board (including Jann Wenner), foundation, and senior leadership several years back on a master plan to reinvent the Rock Hall for future generations. Phase One involved renewing the muse- um’s brand identity. The Rock Hall logo has been tightened up, gone is the word ‘museum,’ and we’ve created a new series of brand and tone-of-voice guidelines to help align the look and feel. We put out large letters on the plaza that spell out ‘Long Live Rock.’ They welcome guests and also frame the architecture of I. M. Pei. An event stage was ear- marked for summer music concerts, and new lighting and speaker towers were installed. We created two custom food trucks, along with all-new lighting of the building’s exterior; a motorcycle parking area was installed on the plaza. A key criterion was to create a pre-concert atmosphere, with music, drinking, eating, and opening bands playing.” Phase Two centered on The Power of Rock Experience, which, Lachel says, is designed to be “the cherry-on-top moment” for guests who have made their way through exhibits on the lower floors. “The idea was to make people feel like they are in the front row of an induction night con- cert,” he says. There was no shortage of material, he adds: “The hall has 20-plus years of incredible footage. We tried to create a concert that really brought it all home—why these individuals were chosen for the Hall of Fame. Because their music stands that test of time.” Lachel says that his team was dedicated to theatricaliz- ing the experience of viewing the film: “Previously, the Connor Theater played host to a multi-hour show of footage from every single induction ceremony. There was no real story. If you were a Jimi Hendrix fan and you got lucky, he was on the screen when you walked in. But you could wait hours for him. It wasn’t envisioned as an experience.” Working with the noted film director was something of a new experience for the BRC team. Lachel says, “We started at the Hall of Fame, then got on the bus to Dearborn and showed Jonathan the Ford Rouge Factory Tour [another,

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BRC project]. He said, ‘You guys create the concert-like gets cut into the ceiling. They tone the graphics with color.” immersion and we’ll create the greatest hits of these Hodge says that the Connor Theater, in some ways, “was moments’.” Editing the film was an intensive task. “The a very difficult space. It’s a 30’ drum, cantilevered out over Rock Hall has thousands of hours of footage,” Lachel adds. the water. The benefit is that it is completely sound-isolated “They recorded everything, but [as it was done over several from the rest of the museum, and we have a show that decades] all in different formats, aspect ratios, and quality. often reaches 110dB. [A set of sound-isolating doors keeps Early on, they didn’t have that many cameras; last year, at sound from bleeding out.] Also, there is no freight elevator; Barclays Center, they had 18. It was all about culling we had to bring scenery up flights of escalators, and every- through the available material and finding the right emotion- thing had to fit through a double-wide door.” al clip, then stitching everything together to make it feel like When audience members enter the theatre, they see a one experience. We were fortunate to work with Jonathan single 4:3 screen; there are five screens altogether, including and his team. He was definitely our partner in this.” two silver screens that come together to make a complete Edward Hodge, creative technical director at BRC, says 16:9 configuration. At different times, the screens can align that Demme and his team “had terabytes and terabytes of to make a single wide-angle image; split into three, some- material, more than half of it standard definition on Beta times offering a single image in triplicate; or form an tapes. We were asking him to put that into a room where arrangement consisting of a wide screen with narrow bands the screens are 12' tall and 30' wide and would dynamically at left and right, the center screen presenting a close-up of move. We did some restoration of footage, and with others a performer and the side screens offering details, such as a we’d do double images, or Manny [Treeson, the lighting tight face shot or a hand picking a guitar. designer] would help us out with an amazing light cue that Hodge says, “The screens helped us to deal with the masks some of the video’s resolution challenges.” variety of aspect ratios available, but they also gave us Now, when guests enter the theatre, they see an elabo- something that is custom to the Rock Hall—for example, rate setup that includes a network of overhead truss, and, being able to split out the Prince sequence and reveal, in a upstage, a curved truss for moving projection screens glance, Tom Petty, standing to the left of Prince. With the backed by an automated lighting rig. On either side of the screens, you can break the story apart, to enhance what screens are enormous stacks of loudspeakers, outlined in would normally be a single-screen view. We do this several lighting. The show that follows, has, by all accounts, an times, playing with the lighting in the theatre as well. When electrifying effect. Grandmaster Flash is performing, the lights back and forth across the theater follow his mixing action, and the sound The experience system moves, too.” Treeson says that his work began with the preshow on the The automation of the screens was handled by ZFX, a bridge outside the theatre, which features custom-made company best known for flying performers. Hodge recalls, “I lighting, an LED wall, and an immersive concealed audio said to them, ‘I know you’ve never done a permanent instal- system: “I came up with a way to do accent lighting within lation before, but how about it’?” The company agreed, and the marquee with a recessed downlight version of the a system was assembled that, Hodge says, “is part off-the- Gantom Wash—there are 40—that was developed for me. shelf and part custom. It’s a solid core nylon rope system When the doors to the theatre open, the marquee lights that really helped us with travel times. I had never done a change color and pulse. I also put in ribbons of light, using rope-and-pulley system for an attraction; they fly people FlexiFlex RGB LED tape, above and below the marquee.” and have a lot of experience, especially when dealing with The walls of the preshow area are covered with graphics. wear and tear.” A RAYNOK motion control software drives “It’s part of a posterized vibe created by BRC,” Treeson the screens. says, “There are great action shots of rock stars, iconic Working with a rough cut of the film, Hodge says, “We images paired with quotes.” The question, he adds, was did simple 3D modeling of the show in After Effects; we “how to use color and tone, even in the preshow, to further kept it simple, because we didn’t want to spend too much that story. I wanted to light the graphics evenly and smooth- time on pre-viz work; we created our baseline effects, then ly in the bridge space and the transition space, called the turned it over to Manny for cueing.” Treeson’s rig is laid out switchback hallway. I became fascinated with the idea that in a row above the stage, with six towers located on either the light would emanate from the ceiling in a uniform force side of the center screen, placed upstage to allow the that would accentuate the lines of the graphics; I chose the screens to pass in front of them. “We used LED units only,” Reveal Wall Wash from Pure Lighting.” The Reveal is a Treeson says. “There are no dimmers. I worried about put- 24VDC linear LED system that features a shallow, plaster-in- ting 100 moving lights into a room that doesn’t have a tech aluminum extrusion no thicker than drywall. “You can make staff to maintain it. Also, I was concerned about wear and it any length you want,” he says. “It’s like a cyc light; it’s tear on fixtures that would be running all day, doing four LED tape with an asymmetrical reflector and a housing that shows an hour. I brought in a bunch of fixtures and ran them

82 • February 2018 • Lighting&Sound America for seven days, eight hours a day to perform a stress test. I effects using TouchDesigner, synchronizing everything in a programmed a three-minute song and videotaped it, as part way that I couldn’t do, short of having to do a lot of math of our pitch to the board.” and programming. Using a pixel map that included the The lighting rig includes Martin by Harman MAC whole lighting rig, and not just the video sources, allowed us Quantum Profiles on the overhead truss and Mac Auras in to further blur the lines between the video and lighting ele- the trough under the downstage grating; Ayrton MagicDot- ments and, in the end, blend them into a whole. When we Rs in the towers behind the moving screens and in over- do the spiral effect on the speakers, for example, it also head positions; Rosco’s MiroCube UVs, which illuminate runs across the MagicDot-Rs behind the screens.” Also UV-reactive graphics in arches in the theatre’s entryway; attached to this pairing is a DMX Merger module, which Inspire RGBW houselights from Chroma-Q; Tivioli Step helps to merge color and intensity levels with the move- Lighting, an LED tape product, for the auditorium’s steps, ments of the automated units. “In the end,” Treeson says, LiteGear RGBA LED tape, to outline the loudspeaker stacks; “my goal was to find as many different avenues to connect and ENTTEC pixel tape, driven by the company’s Pixelators, the guest experience to the music as possible, to cascade in the arches of the exit ramp. Power and distribution are upon the audience visuals using all of our tools that sur- handled by ETC SmartSwitch compact panels and relays. round and immerse them in the performances. The lighting is designed to work with the moving screens. “It’s all about how to find different ways to evoke the nar- “We start with ‘(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean,’ then ration,” Treeson adds. “We created workflow for a time code we go into [the Chuck Berry hit] ‘Johnny B. Goode.’ On the show with Adobe Audition and track sheets. With this many first number, we have no lights at all; it’s just a simple blues cues, if you don’t have a skeleton, you can’t build it in two song. Then we cut to Chuck Berry and that opening guitar weeks.” riff; all we do is reveal one row of light at the top, then it’s Hodge says that the Burbank-based firm TechMD Inc. [Jerry Lee Lewis’] ‘Great Balls of Fire,’ and, from there, was responsible for the AV design and system integration straight into [Black Sabbath’s] ‘Paranoid,’ and then we’re and show control; Joe Wilbur, of that company, was in into it.” Many of his effects are spread out across the mov- charge of the project. The projections are driven by a Green ing and stationary lights. He creates checkerboard looks on Hippo Boreal+ media server delivering images via the speaker stacks during the Ramones’ classic “Rockaway Panasonic projectors. “Of the options in the marketplace, Beach” and staggered and spiral-shaped looks for Prince’s the Hippo was the right choice. We weren’t doing image- guitar solo. Often, different aspects of the rig work in call- blending; rather, we were tracking screens in real time, and and-response fashion, echoing the beats of the music. Hippo offered additional flexibility in the field. We could use Also included in Treeson’s cueing is the network of verti- it to make changes without having to go to an edit bay. cal blades, vertically between the speaker stacks and over Manny was a big part of the process; when he got into the the stage in a kind of cross-hatch arrangement, lined with field, it all worked for him.” ROE Visual LED strips. Using TouchDesigner, a node- Knowing that the film was being assembled from footage based visual programming language for real-time interactive of varying quality, Hodge says, “It was important to have a multimedia content, developed by the Toronto-based com- hero image. The content from [the later broadcasts on HBO] pany Derivative, the lighting designer was able to coordinate was high-definition, so we know we’d have a couple of the cueing of lights, LED tape, and blades. moments with a true 16:9 image and we wanted to make “There are 330 lighting triggers, and more than 600 cues sure the system had the ability to play it back to true cine- in 12 minutes,” Treeson says. “There was something about ma-level specifications. We needed a center projector that the workflow for that many effects that could become cum- was true 16:9. Based on where the cuts are in the film, we bersome if we approached them in a traditional way of bas- put projectors on the edge of 16:9, so the Hippo does the ing all of it off pre-rendered video. Rather, I wanted to con- stitching, not the projector. This way, the museum doesn’t trol all the surfaces, except for the primary video screens, as have to deal with blending over time, and there’s no shifting if they were lighting sources and not video. We used or quality change. But if you watch the show, you’ll swear it TouchDesigner, which is connected to the grandMA lighting was blended.” console, to create what I nicknamed a ‘Pixel Server;’ it The show is run on an Alcorn McBride V16 Pro show allows me to program the video objects like lights in a 3D controller, but, Hodge says, QSC’s Q-SYS software-based format. Using the generative capabilities of TouchDesigner, platform is also involved: “Q-SYS runs with some cus- we created many fluid effects that would have been static if tomized show control functionality. It logs all commands they were just video. Our flexibility become massively mag- and errors in data and the V16 does all of the logic; there’s a nified, because the parameters of the effects were all set on kind of marriage between the two and that’s part of the a cue-by-cue basis on the grandMA. This allowed us to be magic TechMD brings to our projects. With the help of completely nimble during the cueing process and to devel- TechMD, we design show control systems to build in seam- op and change the show on the fly. We created whole rig less ‘hold’ moments and self-report. We know that putting

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in experiences in museums is hard on the staff at first, so we do everything we can to design a system that is as fool proof as possible.” The V16 con- trols the grandMA playback system and TouchDesigner (with DMX Merger attached); it sends cues to the Raynok system and Green Hippo server and playback off of the Q-SYS Core. Hodge adds, “We tasked our friends at TechMD to design a multi- channel audio system that surrounds the guests with concert-level sound but is able to maintain the fidelity of a SMPTE-compliant cinema system. That’s a difficult task, since no speak- ers could be behind the screens, due to their overlapping moves. They came back to us with a design that not only met all off the criteria but successfully ‘voices’ the audio to the center of each screen.” Klipsch supplied the loudspeakers for the sound system. Lighting and integration was sup- plied by Clearwing Productions. Hodge says, “Everyone is always look- ing for partners on projects, and Clearwing is always up to the chal- lenge.” For BRC, Chris Pavlica, the experience-wide media director, and Brian Smith, producer, worked with Demme. Other personnel included Matt Stovall, Pete Thornbury, and Arnold Serame, who worked with Treeson on programming the lighting. “It’s the essential signature piece for our museum,” Rock Hall president and CEO Greg Harris said, in Crain’s Cleveland Business. “It augments our exhibits so well by providing this larg- er-than-life experience that captures the emotion, the energy, and the power of rock and roll.” The BRC team (including Treeson) is now hard at work on Phase Three.

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