What were the challenges of bringing the Ring of Light to life?

Treeson: First, just creating the shape and getting it rigged within the overall footprint of the booth in a way that made sense when a person looked at the booth as a whole. We never wanted it to feel out of proportion to the rest of the booth. Also, we did not want the lighting experience to adversely impact the camera and workflow teams at the booth. This was one of the many reasons we racked the rig away from the camera displays. The rake also allowed the overall show to be more visible for our guests at the booth. People had to crane their head less to watch it because it was tilted towards their line of vision. 

How did you start to program the Ring of Light?

Kong: Emanuel sat down with the tracks before we even began to program to determine cue points and get an idea of how we wanted to cue each song. Sometimes the idea was a bit rough and sometimes very concrete, but we always had a vision of what we were trying to achieve. We then had a day of pre-programming at Illumination Dynamics where we set up how we would use the console. We were also able to set the majority of the cues for the songs as well. Once we got into the convention center, it was all about wringing out the system and really diving into the nitty gritty of the cues. We spent a few days refining our show, making sure everything looked exactly the way we wanted it to, ensuring all transitions were clean and making sure we were still enjoying and having fun watching the show even after seeing it so many times.  We also then had to make sure the whole show ran smoothly in tandem with audio.

What was your personal goal for the project?

Treeson: As a designer, I wanted to approach each song with a different visual gesture. I wanted to create a sense of surprise and delight in the audience with each new cue. For example, one song started out focusing on the SkyPanel S360-Cs’ individual engines working together as one unit bouncing between panels with the rhythm of the beat. As the songs went on, we split the panels into two groups of light engines within each S360-C, hoping to surprise the audience with the new firmware features. We split the panels further into quarters and down to the individual engines. Considering one S360-C is comprised of 12 engines, this was a very complex series of cues. The SkyPanels are so fantastic, and I particularly loved playing with light patterns and their interplay with the various rhythms.