The UVA Men’s basketball team were the 2019 NCAA National Champions, and needed an exciting introduction for every game. We were excited to help bring some energy to the video and, by extension, the stadium each game.
UVA Basketball Details
The directors at UVA were looking for a bright backdrop to showcase the team and wanted a way to showcase the colors and spirit of the school. Using 31 Chauvet COLORbands, we made a box of pixels that could fade and flow with each scene. A floor package of 6 Elation Platinum Beam 5Rs brought more movement, contrast, and dimension to the court at UVA Basketball.
Players, cheerleaders, dancers, and the mascot got in on the action, each are equally important to the energy on the court. Using beams and pixels, we can create a dynamic and immersive lighting display to illuminate the UVA men’s basketball team, mascot, and cheerleaders during their games. The beams of light can highlight their energetic moves on the court, while the pixels can be programmed to display vibrant colors and patterns, enhancing the excitement of the atmosphere.
Geometric shade structure made of taut pink, blue, and white triangular sails set up for an outdoor event
What if you could create an area at a festival that makes a statement, provides a shaded gathering point for attendees, allows for sponsorship opportunities, and is totally unique? That solution is now available with a Geometric Fabric Shade Structure supplied by Lighting & Sound Co in Richmond, Virginia. Your outdoor event venue can be transformed into an artistic visual icon.
This 80-ft diameter shade structure provides over 4,000 square feet of shaded area for your event attendees to use as a central hub. Your guests can comfortably stay for a longer duration and enjoy the entire event. This leads to higher attendance and increased satisfaction. Giving the space some character with hanging decor or seating arrangements encourages guests to relax and socialize.
An example of an 80-ft diameter shade structure with red and white triangular sails, with red covered support towers, set up for a festival
After dark, the shade structure can transform from a cool hangout spot to an immersive, bright experience. The sails serve as a canvas for creative lighting and visual effects; lighting, projections, and banners can enhance the atmosphere once the sun sets.
Compared with a tent, your event attendees will likely find that a shade structure feels more open and iconic. The perimeter height is much taller at 12 ft high compared with a typical 8 ft height of a tent, making the area much more inviting. Additionally, the structure’s customizable and colorful sail fabric is considerably more noticeable, remarkable, and memorable than a typical white tent.
A shade structure at night, with lighting illuminating the underside of the structure, at a music festival
Shade structures can be set up in a variety of outdoor locations, transforming an ordinary open space into an inviting venue. They provide event planners with the flexibility to create custom experiences in diverse settings.
The shade structures’ versatility allows for almost infinite design options. With several colors to choose from and rigging points for all kinds of lighting and decor, you can really give your event a personal and memorable touch that guests will keep talking about.
Top view of a 40 ft diameter geometric shade structure with four colors of sails
Printed fabrics also keep your branding consistent and can provide sponsorship opportunities. The support tower covers or corner gusset flags are great ways to subtly add a logo, or the main sails can make a big statement with custom patterns.
Multiple branding options are available to showcase sponsors. Here all the fabric covers are color-coordinated to match the title sponsor’s color palette and both the support tower and roof sails have been printed with the sponsor logos
The shade structure is manufactured by the leading supplier of stretchy fabric structures: Stretch Shapes. It is engineered in accordance with building codes and to withstand 40 mph winds.
Not only did these three geometrically beautiful shade structures set the tone of the festival, but these also provided the festival attendees a sanctuary away from the scorching UV rays. As thousands of posts flooded social media, featuring the Shade Structures as a backdrop, it’s easy to conclude these artistic structures were functional yet iconic elements of the festival
Shade structures can play a pivotal role in the success of outdoor events, offering both functionality and style. They aren’t only a practical addition to a hot summer day, they enhance the overall atmosphere and personality of the event. Event planners looking to create unforgettable experiences should provide the perfect setting to make lasting memories.
Since our inception, we’ve provided high end lighting for sports events all over the country. We’ve created designs for some pretty unique events. Our crew has crisscrossed the country with Tough Mudder, setting up obstacles made out of entertainment truss. Lighting & Sound Co. Richmond works with VCU Athletics every year on the hype video for the VCU Men’s Basketball team, and works with Bleacher Report to provide production for their Honor Bowl Event in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
An LSC project manager oversees the building of black truss obstacles for Tough Mudder X.
An LSC technician tests the “Mile High Club” in Kentucky for Tough Mudder.
Production for VCU Basketball’s Hype Video shot at The Siegel Center in Richmond, VA.
Lighting Up A Rock Wall
One of the cool clients we get to work with every year is Sports Backers. Sports Backers is a non-profit aimed at getting people more active. They put on all of the large sports events in Richmond. Some of their events include the Anthem Richmond Marathon, Dominion Riverrock, and The Monument Avenue 10k, which is the 4th largest 10k in the country.
An LSC technicians ties up cables on the complex scaffolding structure.
Boulder Bash at Dominion RiverRock involves “the most unique bouldering wall ever constructed” and is over 20 feet high, which is a fitting challenge for the nation’s largest outdoor sports and music festival. 20 men and 20 women, some of the best rock climbers in the nation, compete for cash prizes worth up to $1500. Since the final stages of competition go late into the evening, lighting is needed for climbers to see the routes and spectators to view the action. We use waterproof lighting fixtures, Chauvet Colorado 1 Quad IP and Colordash H12 IP units, to light up the outdoor area. We provide an operator during all competition times, allowing for lighting effects to run during inter-race periods.
Lighting the wall was both aesthetic and functional. High-powered LEDs places strategically out of sight-lines illuminated the path for competitors.
Sound Reinforcement
What’s a sporting event without an announcer to let the spectators know who is winning? We provided powered speakers, the venerable QSC K12, flown high up from the top of the structure. This position enabled everyone to hear announcements and music far across the event site.
About The Lighting & Sound Co.
The Lighting & Sound Company provides high-end sports event lighting to the East Coast. We’re here to help make sure it’s perfect. With an extensive portfolio of beautiful events, we serve sports events of all sizes. Our team has worked many high profile projects, and has experience working and integrating with major TV networks.
The Lighting & Sound Co. offers many custom design & AV solutions for events of all sizes. Take a look at our portfolio and give us a call to start designing your sports event. Our knowledgeable and friendly designers will walk you through the process. Our extended office hours mean you can reach us at almost any time of day.
The Lighting & Sound Company was onsite for the Virginia state competition of VEX Robotics. This event featured challenges and other events from multiple competitors and took place at The Meadow Event Park’s Farm Bureau Center in Doswell, Virginia.
Robot Competition Fields lit by stage lighting
VEX Robotics
The VEX Robotics Competition aims to challenge students to build a robot which competes in games and engineering tasks. Students who are inspired to solve problems now might consider careers in STEM fields.
Lighting Equipment
The centerpiece of this event involved six competition fields on raised platforms. It was important for the teams and audience to see the action the fields, so the event coordinators requested spotlights on the playing areas. In addition, it was important to not block sightlines with ground-support towers, so we supplied a system that hung from the roof.
Lighting consisted of 120 feet of 12″x 12″ box truss in two 60-foot spans. This supported 24 ETC Source Four Lekos for stage lighting. Also used were Chauvet Colorado 1 Quad units for wall uplighting. Additional stage effect lighting was provided by Chauvet Intimidator 375Z moving head units.
LSC Technicians assemble fixtures and cables on a lighting truss
We raised the lighting safely out of the way of audience view on eight Columbus-McKinnon chain hoists. Our friends at Hanging Concepts LTD provided rigging services. In addition, Main Stage Productions supplied the competition stages.
All in all, we enjoyed being one of the first providers to provide a flown light package in this venue. We have already marked our calendar for next year’s event.
The Lighting & Sound Co headed out to the Hampton Roads area to set up some TV lighting for the Under Armor Brothers In Arms Classic football game between two top-tier football teams. Bleacher Report was televising the game live via webcast between no. 2 in the country IMG Academy of Sarasota, Florida and Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School of Virginia Beach. Both schools are high school football powerhouses; the IMG Ascenders have 30 players committed to college teams while the Bishop Sullivan Crusaders have 7 commits.
Gear for the tunnel unloaded and ready to be set up.
Working at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex, we provided a truss goalpost structure with an extensive moving head and LED strip lighting package so that the teams would have a tunnel-like archway filled with smoke and haze effects as well as effect lighting to run out of onto the field at the start of the game. Numerous TV cameras captured captured the entire scene, as local news stations and Bleacher Report’s photojournalists filmed from all angles.
Completed truss structure stood in the corner for both teams to run through as they entered the field
Lighting effects consisted of moving head beam units (Elation Beam 5R), moving head wash units (Chauvet Rogue R2 Wash), and LED striplights (Elation ELED QA Strip). Our lighting designer operated the rig live as the run out occurred for maximum visual effect and excellent looks for TV viewers. The colors were coordinated to match with the team uniform color.
Meanwhile, a powerful QSC KW153 active loudspeaker played upbeat music to pump up the players as they ran out through the tunnel.
The necessary electrical power for all of this professional stage lighting was not available nearby where it would be needed on the football field. Fortunately, our friends at Temp-Power had just the right size of quiet-run portable generators to provide the needed electricity while being quiet enough to not interrupt the event.
Gear List:
8x Elation Lighting Platinum Beam 5R
8x Elation Lighting ELED QA Strip
8x Chauvet Rogue R2 Wash
2x Martin JEM ZR44 High Mass Fog Machine
Martin M-PC lighting console with M-Touch control surface
8x Applied Electronics 12″ x 12″x 10′ HD Box Truss
4x Applied Electronics 12″ x 12″ 5-way corner block
The VCU Men’s Basketball team recently filmed a promotional video that introduces the players before each game. V2 Content, a talented video production company based in Lincoln, Nebraska, brought us in to help with the lighting. The Lighting & Sound Co was on location at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, providing film lighting and making sure the players looked great.
From render to reality, the VCU Basketball rig featured 36 1000W Par cans- that’s a lot of firepower!
We provided a giant wall of light using classic PAR64s in pre-rigged truss. With 36 individually controllable units adjacent to each other, it was easy to achieve many different patterns and effects. A handful of moving head profiles provided additional air light effects. Of course, the video wouldn’t have looked nearly as awesome without a fine haze to show the beams of light. Our favorite hazer, the Look Solutions Unique 2.1, filled the entire gym within a few minutes.
LSC Lighting Designer Chris Hill pushes the rig to full for a dramatic shot.
This lighting required about 37,000 watts of electrical power, which is more the amount of power that your entire house needs. While that much power is available in the main Siegel Center arena, the shoot was taking place on the opposite end of the facility about 600 feet away. Running long feeder cable to get the power where it was needed wasn’t feasible, but fortunately our friends at Temp-Power provided a generator perfectly suited for the job that could be placed much closer.
Temp Power delivers a 45 KVa generator to power the 36kw rig.
Gear list:
36x PAR64 1000W NSP, on lamp bars
3x Applied Electronics PRT Pre-Rig Truss
48-ch ETC Sensor+ Touring Dimmer Rack
6x Robe Robin Pointe beam/spot/wash moving head
Look Solutions Unique 2.1 Hazer
Martin M-PC Lighting Console with M-Touch
45 KVa three-phase portable generator from Temp-Power
Summer time is upon us, and Slide The City brought 1000 feet of slick vinyl to brighten the streets of Richmond. Richmonders showed up in droves to take the plunge down the 1000 foot water slide. A water slide longer than three football fields was set up on lovely Byrd Street in downtown RVA. Slide the City is a family & friends slip-and-slide water party event, including live music, food, drinks, water, and of course the biggest slip and slide ever to hit the city. We brought out distributed sound reinforcement to the event to provide tunes to riders on their way down the slide. Live music was provided by Full Spectrum, of the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band, as well as 101.1 The Fam. Check out Slide the City’s video below!
