TIME celebrated the publication of the annual TIME 100: The Most Influential People in the World at a gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center where WorldStage provided sound reinforcement and video presentation technology services for Empire Entertainment, Inc., which produced the glittering event.
Coveted spots on the TIME 100 list this year were filled by Beyonce, Google's Eric Schmidt, director Alfonso Cuaron, Robert Redford, Amy Adams, transgender actor Laverne Cox and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Honorees Pharrell Williams, Carrie Underwood and Seth Meyers entertained the guests.
"Our company has a strong history with the team at WorldStage and work closely with them," says Melissa Gold, Senior Producer at Empire Entertainment. "WorldStage was instrumental in making everything work within the space and within the budget at the TIME 100 gala."
Visual imagery filled a number of roles during the evening. "We used video content on plasmas to display content throughout the night, like moving wall paper," Gold says. "During the show two of the monitors did a show feed for overflow guests who were not in the main room." Video content looped later in the evening when a DJ performed in the atrium.
WorldStage furnished three Sony HXC-100 video cameras, a FOR-A HVS 300 video production switcher, and AJA Ki Pro digital recorders for ISO and PGM. Four Christie HD 10K-M video projectors displayed onto a pair of 9x16-foot screens on stage. Video playback was facilitated using DT Labs Playback Pro on iMac computers.
The biggest challenges were posed by the performances of Williams and Underwood. "Each act had a significant amount of equipment on a single stage with little TIME or space to facilitate turnover," says Tony Rossello, director of events and venues at WorldStage. "We liaised with artist management to incorporate their specifications and design an effective sound reinforcement system appropriate to the event space."
Audio gear included Yamaha CL5 and PM5D consoles and DiGiCo SD7 consoles for FOH and monitors; Shure X and UR band wireless mics; and a Riedel digital intercom system.
WorldStage Inc., the company created by the merger of Scharff Weisberg Inc and Video Applications Inc, continues a thirty-year legacy of providing clients the widest variety of entertainment technology coupled with conscientious and imaginative engineering services. WorldStage provides audio, video and lighting equipment and services to the event, theatrical, broadcast and brand experience markets nationally and internationally.
