Elite Multimedia Heightens the Experience of the Propel Women's Conference

	Photo: Craig Rutherford

Designed to create an interconnected life which affirms the gifts of women worldwide, the Propel Women's Conference hosts a series of events aimed at strengthening the leadership role of women in today's workplace. With local chapters on virtually every continent, the conferences entail a full production of inspiring music, speakers, and panel discussions. Brought on to heighten the conference experience, production designer Nathan Baugh (46 Entertainment) and lighting designer Craig Rutherford (Blueshift Design) created a full lighting, audio, and video design using the live event production team at Elite Multimedia.

"Nathan and I previously worked together on the Alan Jackson tour and when he asked me to be a part of the Propel Women's Conference, I gladly accepted," says Rutherford. "With my background in creating lighting and video designs for a house-of-worship production, I got to work and put together six possible layouts. After discussing them over with Nathan, we chose the design that would work best and then he contacted Elite Multimedia and asked them to be our lighting, audio and video provider."

As he was putting together the design concepts, Rutherford knew that each event would have slight differences based on location, but the production needs would remain the same. Having a gear provider that could offer them a broad range of equipment to choose from was paramount.

"One of the biggest challenges in the design was the differences in the venues," says Rutherford. "We had to have a design that could be manipulated to fit as needed, but then we still had to have the right production elements to support the bands who would be playing and the various speakers and panel discussions that would take place throughout the day. Working with Elite Multimedia, they have a wide stock of production gear so it was easy to find the ideal tools needed to make each event something special to remember."

Deciding upon the exact lighting package for the conferences, Baugh and Rutherford worked with the live event production team at Elite Multimedia and chose a rig that included MAC 700 Profile fixtures, MAC Aura LED luminaires, Chauvet Epix Strips, Chauvet COLORado Batten 72 Tour wash lights, and Chauvet SlimPAR Pro Tri LED luminaires, all controlled by a grandMA2 full-size lighting console.

"When we started looking at the lighting elements, we needed spot, wash, and special effect fixtures but we also had to remain budget-conscious," says Rutherford. "We selected the MAC 700 Profiles because they provide good, solid color-mixing from a 700W fixture at an affordable price. We then chose the MAC Aura for our wash fixtures because they have a great white for IMAG video, but also a wonderfully homogenized color output which alleviates any color divergence on camera."

Next turning their attention to the video, they once again relied upon the expertise of the Elite Multimedia team, and they took advantage of the multitude of PixelFLEX LED screens in stock at the Elite Multimedia warehouse.

Rutherford says, "For the video screens, we knew that Elite carried a full line of the PixelFLEX LED video walls from our time with them on tour with Alan Jackson. While we initially thought we might go with a low res option for simple movement behind the artists and speakers, we soon decided to go with the high res FLEXLite 6.9mm LED tiles so they we could display the lyrics to the music and other high res graphics with a perfect pixel pitch."

Along with the lighting and video elements, Elite Multimedia also provided a full audio package that included Midas PRO2C and PRO2 digital consoles, a Midas DL251 microphone preamplifier, and a Shure UXLD Wireless microphone system.

"I love working with Elite Multimedia not only because their gear arrives to go, but also because of the great relationship I have with everyone in their office," says Rutherford. "They really take the time to get to know you as a designer and they always take great care of me. When I heard that they had been chosen as the production provider, I was excited and I knew they would help each conference achieve its mission of passion, purpose, and potential."