By: Ron Procopio, USITT Expo Director
Everyone knows that you never get second chance at a first impression.
That first impression at USITT in St. Louis was a very large video projection wall in the main lobby of the America’s Center Convention Complex. The 136’ seamless video projection wall was a 9-month project utilizing a number of our exhibiting companies and an exceptionally talented graduate student.
Most convention centers offer a grand lobby entrance to an expo hall. The America’s Center only allowed for a 13’ 6” hallway as it’s entrance. The question became how to create a grand, inspiring entrance design in a long corridor.
The inspiration came from a viral video on YouTube of the company Salesforce’s lobby. They utilize a video wall in their headquarter office to create a unique entrance and experience. USITT has been working on growing our media server and projection technologies at Stage Expo for several years. This opportunity allowed for a number of companies to showcase their products and services.
Media Servers were provided by Show Sage featuring the Dataton Watchout software for content management.
Seven 7,000 lumen projectors were provided by Epson. The screen was 136’ by 13’ tall seamless ULTRABRITE screen from Gerriets International. The screen was hand cut for door openings while attached to the wall in a nerve-racking few moments for the production team. The screen was attached to free standing trussing provided by XS Lighting and dozens of bungee cords.
The content for the projection wall was a composite piece made up of basic show designed art work with logos, show elements, and basic information needed at every entrance as signage. Silver Stage Productions created custom content to showcase what their company can offer including the St. Louis skyline with fireworks.
Yale University Graduate Student, Wladimiro A. Woyno Rodriguez, managed all of moving pieces of content and created his own pieces to showcase on the wall. In addition, he took on the role of supervising the installation and on-site management. Look for our feature on Wladimiro and his work on the projection wall in the next issue of College2Career!
It was an exciting project to bring to USITT 2017 and we are grateful for all the work and energy the team put forward to create such a cool experience. Now what will 2018’s entrance be? Time will tell!
