Crown. Live Music Capital. The. of the. of the World. Austin City Limits Live at Moody Theater puts the exclamation point on the city s music scene

Transcription

1 VENUE Copyright Lighting&Sound America February Crown The Live Music Capital Austin City Limits Live at Moody Theater puts the exclamation point on the city s music scene By: Richard Cadena of the World of the 58 February 2012 Lighting&Sound America

2 One reason that Austin, Texas is known as the Live Music Capital of the World is because of Austin City Limits, produced by the local PBS outlet KLRU-TV. Currently in its unprecedented 37th year, the trademark of the live music show is the Austin skyline in the background, but its longevity is clearly based on its standard of quality of programming and production. This month, ACL celebrates its first year in its new venue, the Moody Theatre, adjoining the posh W Hotel in the heart of downtown Austin. Contrary to what many people may think and what your eyes might lead you to believe, the television show is not shot outdoors. In fact, the studio-produced show is shot so cleverly that it appears to be staged on an outdoor perch with a view of the downtown skyline at night. That tradition continues in the new digs, including a newly updated skyline that reflects the surprising growth of Austin over the last few years. Not only is the new facility home to the award-winning show it was recently declared an Official Rock & Roll Landmark by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, awarded a National Medal of the Arts by former President George W. Bush, and voted Best New Live Music Scene Game-changer by readers of the Austin Chronicle it is also now hosting live shows featuring national acts. Sharing Austin City Limits and Austin City Limits Live (ACL Live), the Moody Theatre is a dual-purpose facility, making it more of a challenge to design and work in than ACL s previous home in a studio on the campus of the University of Texas. All photos, except where noted: Mark Knight Launching a legend When ACL s pilot episode, with Willie Nelson, kicked off in 1974, Bob Selby designed clear and simple lighting using the conventional gear available at the time. Walter Olden started working on the show in About five years later, High End Systems started manufacturing and selling automated lights, and, eventually, some of the company s Cyberlight SVs ended up in the show s rig. I think we started out with ten of them in the late 90s, Olden said. When we first started, I was the only one who operated them. For the first year, I just used an ETC console that was not made for moving lights. It was a challenge. Because of the difficulty running automated units from a conventional console, Olden used them only as backlights. Three or four years later, he started to play with some High End Studio Spots. All of the lights were hanging from the grid; nothing on the floor, Olden explained. I finally suggested that we try putting some lights on the floor, and I met with a lot of resistance. They didn t want to see the lights and the space they took up. And I m not sure they liked the look. February

3 VENUE you are trying to optimize the facility for the performer, the audience, and the crew, we also had to consider the cameras and the video teams. Austin City Limits had created magic in Studio 6A, and we wanted to make sure that magic transferred to the new venue. We talked extensively once he saw what we had and what we needed, Olden said. We worked very well together and put together a great infrastructure and plan. The auditorium features balcony seating on three sides. Dueling consoles Eventually, advice was solicited from some bigger designers and lighting directors, said Olden, in his modest way. Lowell Fowler, founding owner of High End Systems, helped to arrange for Troy Eckerman, the designer and programmer, to assist in assembling a design that would work with automated lighting. It took a couple of years to work out the placement, Olden said, but everyone was happy. Part of what was decided was that we needed two consoles, one of which would be in the venue to really be part of the music, to see and feel what was happening. The ACL team ended up linking two Strand 520 consoles. Olden operated one in the studio and Bob Selby ran the other in the control room. But, after consulting with Eckerman, they decided that the 520 did not have enough "live" capability. The solution was to bring in a Flying Pig Systems Hog ipc and a programmer. That s when Michael Tinez Martinez and Vicky Claiborne joined the team, sharing programming and playback duties. In 2006, Olden became lighting designer and Claiborne moved to Las Vegas to take a job with PRG. Ethan Balmer took her place. Claiborne put down roots in Vegas just as ACL was about to pull up roots and move to a new studio designed from the ground up. For a long time, according to Olden, the idea of moving the studio was just talk. But when Theatre Consultants Collaborative was hired as the consultant firm for the project, it put some reality in the discussion. Curtis Kasefang was the lead consultant on the project. TCC attended several tapings in the old studio to see how the production crew used the space, and to gain an understanding of the needs of the television show s director, Kasefang said. Unlike a typical performance venue where Two spaces in one As the planned start date drew closer, Stratus Properties, which co-owns the building with Willie Nelson, put Olden and Kasefang in contact with Pace/Clear Channel, which was slated to be a managing partner at the time. We had some good talks, but when we talked to their lighting guy, it was bad news, Olden said. He was an oldtimer who had not been on the road for a while; he said, Why are we putting in all this stuff? They are only going to use their stuff, and whatever we put in is not going to be what they want, anyway. " Because of this issue, and because it was going to be a mixed space for a TV show and live concerts Olden was understandably concerned. I think Stratus started having second thoughts about who was going to manage this space and what was going to work best for them, he said. Eventually, they decided to hire their own management team, including Billy Heaslip, a 37-year veteran of the road, who was a lighting designer and production manager for Barry Manilow, Donna Summer, Luther Vandross, and Yes, to name a few. Heaslip in turn brought in Bryan Schrump, whom he knew from the Yes tour, to be house LD and electrician. Olden said bringing in Heaslip was a great thing. Bill Strother, of William Strother Design, also joined the design team, bringing his lighting and architectural background to help model and visualize the proposed design. TCC provided planning services, venue design support, seating and sightline studies; it also coordinated electrical for all specialty disciplines and specified lighting, staging, and rigging systems. Besides Kasefang, who was the lead consultant, TCC personnel included Kyle Smith, responsible for rigging, drapery, and staging; Cy Almey, for theatre design; and Robert Long, for facility programming. It could not have worked out any better, Olden said. Building a studio Heaslip was brought in as a technical consultant in July The design team worked out a package of lighting equipment, a stage design, and a lighting plot using Vectorworks. They also made sure they had the same size 21' x 10' elevator with a 10,000lb lifting capacity, matching the elevator in the old studio, to accommodate tours with multiple semis. It took a great amount of time, Olden said, to work out what was needed both by the television production and the 60 February 2012 Lighting&Sound America

4 Inside one of the VIP booths. Curtis Kasefang, the theatre consultant, said, Austin City Limits had made magic in Studio 6A, and we wanted to make sure that magic transferred to the new venue. live shows. As with many projects, the budget grew and funding became an issue. Some things were compromised, but, on the whole, it worked out quite well. Olden Lighting, which Olden started in 1986, was the lighting and controls integrator, making sure everything worked properly and the first show went smoothly. It was no easy task. KLRU had to have all of the new television and audio recording equipment installed, effectively turning an empty space into a working television studio, and it needed the funds to do it. The station put together a capital campaign to fund the project, but, as Olden noted, raising money is never easy, so we had to be very careful. We wanted to be energy-efficient as well cost-effective, Olden added, but, as a mixed-use facility, it was more difficult. We had to work out which side of the venue, the studio side or the live side, was buying what part of the shared equipment. We talked to as many manufacturers as we could to help us out. High End went above and beyond, and Strand and Wybron also helped out. There were others who helped out as well. stage four cancer. He underwent 41 radiation treatments during that time, and the cancer is now in remission. The Moody Theater, as it was dubbed, is a versatile space that seats up to 2,750 people, but it s designed to be segmented into a smaller space seating 800 people for the taping of ACL shows by drawing a black drape. And though it has a mezzanine and a balcony, the feel is strictly intimate. Tim Neece, the general manager, likes to say that the farthest seat, which is in the balcony, is still only 75' from the Strictly intimate Heaslip was soon hired on a full-time basis as production manager and another production manager, John Wheatley, was also added to the roster. Wheatley had spent the prior 14 years running the Verizon Theater in Houston. Having a second production manager turned out to be just what the doctor ordered, because, during the most crucial part of the entire process the opening Heaslip found out he had An outdoor terrace looks out over downtown Austin. February

5 VENUE eyes of the performer. The stage was manufactured by Stage Right, and is 40' wide, 28' deep, and 4' high smaller for the tapings with a maximum size of 56' by 32'. The space has 540' of rigged truss, including 10 motorized trusses, and 80' and 50' motorized pipes for temporary drapes. The house lighting equipment includes 40 High End Systems Intellaspot XT-1s, three Robert Juliat Victor MSR 1800 followspots, and an assortment of Wybron Cygnus LED fixtures, Strand Lekolites, and PAR 64s. The lighting console is a Flying Pig Systems Road Hog Full Boar with an expansion wing. We used Lyntec s motorized breaker panels, ETC dimmers, and Unison Paradigm as the core of the installed system, with Barbizon s Rockies office doing system integration, Kasefang added. Texas Scenic provided winched trusses, the winched balcony blackout drape, and the winch for the skyline. There s a lot different between the [old and new facility], Olden commented. The new one has a balcony around three sides of the venue, and though there are trusses over the open area, there are none over the balcony. That makes it a little tougher. The old studio had a fully movable grid over almost the entire studio, in a pod format with a few linesets, a full cyc pipe, a catwalk at 26' along three sides of the studio, but we had to run our own DMX lines everywhere. The new studio has distributed nodes for DMX. There is also a lighting position on the upper balcony rail, which is a really good position. So the rooms are really different. The audio gear includes a Meyer self-powered line array with 16 flown MICA speakers and six flown 600-HP subs with Meyer Galileo digital signal processing. If the Austin skyline is the trademark look, the pristine sound is the trademark of the audio quality. Ask anyone who has witnessed an event there and they re sure to comment on it. Heaslip says that not one band has brought in its own racks and stacks because touring engineers are happy with it. He added, Lighting is only brought in when shows have their own touring rig already programmed. We can rig anything. Recreating the skyline Still, Heaslip says it wasn t easy going from production manager to being on the other side of the contract. He says he had to adjust his thinking to do so. Another challenge is turning over the room from live mode to television mode, which involves moving six sets of bleachers weighing 9,000lbs each for every taping. But, he says, Wheatley does a masterful job of overseeing it. Of the gear in the former studio in the communications building on the UT campus, only the Studio Spot fixtures made the transition. Even the iconic Austin skyline backdrop was recreated for the new venue. The original backdrop used C-9s, C-7s, S-11s, some LED100 Price reduced, now $1500 MSRP Wireless Power Wireless Control CIRCLE READER SERVICE 16 PLASA FOCUS AUSTIN #107 The battery operated, wireless LED100 supplies power and data for one or two ColorBlast 6, 12, or TRX fixtures. It includes a built in battery charger, voltmeter, wireless DMX control by Wireless Solutions, two 4-pin fixture connectors, one 5-pin DMX out connector, and two 15 Amp-hour batteries DMX512 Ideal for quick set-ups and locations without wires February 2012 Lighting&Sound America

6 Photo: Jonathan Jackson reflector floods as bounce, and a bunch of mini-bayonet base low-voltage lamps using transformers, Olden explained. The wiring was a nightmare, and, because the bases were hot glued, soldered, or stapled in place, replacing a bad one was very hard. Plus, the design of the old drop wouldn t work in the new space because of how it is laid out. Unlike the old backdrop, the new one had to fly in and out to accommodate the mixed-use facility. That meant that it had to be strong enough to support its own weight while suspended on cables, a fact that was complicated by its odd shape. The old 1/4" luan construction was not an option. We had a hard time finding someone to design and build the new backdrop, Olden said. Eventually, Austinbased graphic artist Ellen Lampl and scenic designer Tim Dingle designed and painted the enormous backdrop, and Austin-based Custom Creation built it. It ended up being constructed out of 3/4" plywood. We really wanted to create something that was goodlooking and much easier to maintain, Olden added. I had a real problem trying to figure out the best way to do the lighting for this backdrop. I wanted to go LED, but what kind and how? I was exploring different options when we got Barco involved. That made all the difference. The new backdrop features newly added buildings in the Austin skyline, most notably the Frost Bank building, and it s lit primarily with Barco Helix P1 150mm LED strings and nodes covered with diffusion to soften the light. The layout worked great, Olden enthused. We wanted the backdrop to look similar with a few updates, and I think it has worked out very well. But it was a lot of work. With the new shared facility, the ACL production crew had to make some big adjustments. It took a while before we got the hang of the new space, Olden said. It was a big difference not having total control of the space and having to strike everything that is not the basic set-up each time we do the show. What does Heaslip foresee for the future of the venue? Improvements and tweaks. There are some backstage areas that I would like to see improved catering and storage space, the touring production office, wardrobe area, mood lighting...we re actually working on that now. A little polishing of the crown never hurts. CIRCLE READER SERVICE 21 PLASA FOCUS AUSTIN #420 February