PixelFLEX Creates an Artistic LED Video Design for "Give Thanks" 2015

To kick-off the holiday season, World Outreach Church created "Give Thanks," a celebration designed to repurpose this season with hope and thanksgiving held at the Bridgestone Arena. Filled with inspirational speakers, a musical performance by Martina McBride, plus an energetic percussion display by Stikyard, production designer Scott Moore, Go Live Productions, needed a video backdrop that could highlight the unique performances onstage, but also capture the essence of the message being delivered. So working with Nashville-based Elite Multimedia, a PixelFLEXRental Partner, Moore created a truly unique video design using 140 FLEXCurve 8mm LED video tiles.

"I've been involved with "Give Thanks" for the last three years, and each year the design process is entirely dependent upon what the programming material is going to be," says Moore. "I knew I wanted to create a nice, clean aesthetic so that when we looked at the stage during the production it really felt like a piece of art. By using the FLEXCurve LED video tiles, we were able to accomplish a beautiful scenic design that accentuated all the elements of the production from the energetic 30-member Stikyard percussion ensemble to Martina McBride and the evening's speakers as well."

The Parnelli award-winning FLEXCurve from PixelFLEX breaks all barriers in the rigid tile category through an innovative dual wing curving LED tile, the company says. Designed with a 4mm - 12mm pitch that's ideal for both indoor and outdoor applications, the company says, the FLEXCurve exceeds the needs of any live production event looking for a high-definition LED display. Also designed with rigging flexibility in mind, FLEXCurve LED video screens feature easy top-mounting, "Rig and Click" vertical interconnect, hassle-free alignment, plus quick horizontal interconnect and curve setup.

"The complete LED video system was comprised of 22 columns of FLEXCurve LED tiles hanging at 45 degree angles off each other," continued Moore. "When I was looking at the LED video options available, I really liked the size of the FLEXCurve panels and an 8 mm product would work perfect for what I needed. By having a 30" x 30" tile, we were able to hang two tiles together at a 45° angle from one another and then hang the subsequent tiles underneath to create the vertical LED walls. In total we used 140 of the FLEXCurve LED panels and it only took us a short time to install the complete LED video system."

As with many live production events, Moore and his team would not have the luxury of time when it came to the load-in and set-up of the show. Knowing that a quick deployment of the LED video system would be a necessity, he was pleased to find out how the unique locking system of the FLEXCurve allows for a fast and effortless vertical panel connection.

"Every time we have done this event, there has been another production or sporting event inside the arena the evening before," says Moore. "Because of this, we have no way to come in the day prior for pre-rigging or set-up, so we start load-in at 4am and we have to be ready for sound check by 2pm. I needed the LED wall to be quick and easy to deploy, and that's exactly what we got with the FLEXCurve which was essential to the success of the production."

With the FLEXCurve LED panels in place, Moore got to work creating the video content for the show working with AJ Morgan using Catalyst Media Servers. Inspired by the custom design of the video columns, they envisioned a number of video mapping possibilities so that the content itself would also have a custom look as well.

"The video content this year was a lot of atmospheric design that we produced out of our stock library," says Moore. "AJ really helped us out tremendously with his understanding of SMPTI time code, and we were able to be pretty flexible as to how we mapped the content to the different columns. Throughout the show, we were able to control each column individually or have them work in unison as one which allowed us to really manipulate the video for a wonderfully custom production. For example, with the Stikyard performance, when they were using the metal grinders, we created custom spark content and used SMPTI time code to fire it in sync with the performers on stage and it looked great."

With the load-in and programming now complete, it was time to kick off "Give Thanks" 2015 with World Outreach Church. Watching from the front-of-house, Moore was not only confident that they had created the true art piece desired, but he was also confident that it was the choice of FLEXCurve LED video tiles that brought the design to life.

"At the end of the day, the LED video columns created by the FLEXCurve looked amazing," says Moore. "While it was initially the size of the FLEXCurve that sold us on its usage for this application, it was their complete performance that solidified the production design. If I had chosen another panel, we would not have been able to create the custom LED columns the way we did, and that would have completely changed the clean and artistic aesthetic that we achieved inside the Bridgestone Arena."