LMG, Inc. and DWP Live Tackle Video for the 2012 Bridgestone Halftime ShowThe team of LMG, Inc. and DWP Live recently collaborated to provide the video display watched by more than 114 million Americans as Madonna performed at the Bridgestone Super Bowl Halftime show. Bruce Rodgers, of Tribe, the show's set designer, engaged LMG, supported the highly anticipated performance with lightweight LEDs customized for the main stage, and partnered with live event production company, DWP Live, to accomplish the large-scale projection mapping of the field surface in front of the stage. Tennessee-based DWP Live, founded by industry veteran Danny Whetstone, installed the projectors that made the playing field of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the performance starring Madonna. In less than seven minutes, LMG's LED team of Super Bowl veterans and over 500 volunteers rolled out and assembled the massive stage onto the field, comprised of seven hundred ninety-six 11.25MM lightweight FLED io11 tiles, custom constructed into fourteen LED stage carts. Madonna performed four songs, including guest performers LMFAO, Cee Lo Green, M.I.A., and Nicky Minaj, and within the 12 minute time frame turned the stage and 149' x 80' field projection area into everything from living Vogue magazine covers to reverberating speakers. The visually stunning content was created by Moment Factory from Montreal, Canada. After the performance, breakdown, and removal of the stage and projection area from the field was completed in less than seven minutes. The halftime show was approximately 12 minutes but required months of planning and testing for LMG and DWP, and more than three weeks of dedicated time in Indianapolis. Both companies traveled to Orlando in December to test projection efforts at LMG's corporate headquarters. By using a crane rigged with a "pod" of four projectors over 150 feet in the air, the test ensured image consistency would be maintained as they projected downward on to the field surface for the show. Whetstone and the crew spent rigorous weeks before the halftime show with hours of equipment set up and trial runs to make sure the entire performance was flawless. DWP used 32 Barco FLM HD20 projectors, rigged into eight pods of four projectors each, to drive the intricate show on more than 11,000 sq. ft of projector surface area. The projectors were operated, converged, and edge blended by DWP Live using the Barco Projector Toolset located at a main control computer. "It feels good to have a national stage to show off our capabilities," said Whetstone. "People have seen our work on concert tours and corporate meetings, but they never know it's us and they never know the full extent of what we can do, so to be at the Super Bowl and be involved in the halftime show was a great chance to show the world what we do." For LMG, the performance represented the highest profile, largest audience, both live and commercially broadcasted, and fastest event from setup to breakdown, in company history. "It took a tremendous amount of time and effort for the team to develop and perfect a finely tuned process to make this happen, and I'd like to personally thank everyone involved for their dedication and hard work," states Les M. Goldberg, CEO/president of LMG.
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