this, and BL&S worked closely with the White House Communications office to ensure they met the exact standards for the staging, lighting and cameras used. BL&S served as the sole point of contact for the White House, providing everything from staging to lighting, drapes, carpentry, as well as audio and video feeds for the press.

 

Delivering clear audio in such a cavernous space was no easy feat. The team’s audio experience served them well in determining the optimal speaker placement and audio processing to achieve the correct sound patterns while avoiding reflective material that would cause reverberations. In addition, the team worked under ever-changing conditions and a tight deadline – lighting the event, providing video feeds for the press pool as well as the White House, distributing multiple power sources throughout the venue, installing multiple press risers, setting up monitors for the green room, placing security barricades, providing backup mics and other equipment, sourcing custom draping, and more.

 

The work involved coordinating multiple trades, including 37 stagehands who were brought in at the last minute to build frames for flags that would be on display for the event. Despite many last-minute changes, the high-profile event went off without a hitch.

 

With 24,600-square feet of raw open space, 60-foot vaulted ceilings, and abundant skylights, the venue was a blank slate. This meant all the equipment and trusses needed to be rigged and flown throughout the space. Accomplishing this required considerable planning to design and execute equipment rig points that were safe and structurally sound. The BL&S team designed the rigging, and coordinated the work of the expansive crew required to build out the show in three day’s time. The team also hung four arrays of speakers and managed all the audio for both the conference and the DJs for the after party.

 

Within 72 hours, the team transformed the space, with distinctive visuals to accompany the vibrant music and lighting. For the reveals, BL&S constructed motorized trusses, making it easy for the client to “fly in” dramatic entertainment features to close the event. The client was thrilled with the resulting special effects.

 

 

The team helps corporate clients adapt all range of events, such as investor presentations, webcasts, all-hands meetings, and corporate town halls, for both remote and in-person, socially distanced participants. Leveraging their expertise using multi-cam setups and high-end audio, video, and lighting, BL&S enhances presentation quality, while enabling participants to safely communicate. Events can be hosted at the company or from the broadcast studio at BL&S in Boston, MA.

 

Houses of worship

BL&S has enabled faith-based organizations to stay connected with community members through virtual and hybrid celebrations. Churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship invite congregants to join together remotely and/or through socially distant in-person gatherings. These special events help bring people together while keeping the community safe. And the high-quality audio, video, and lighting capabilities make each event an exception one.

 

Town meetings

BL&S has been supporting many communities as they hold indoor and outdoor town meetings. Some communities are hosting the meetings across multiple sites or at vast indoor and outdoor spaces. With residents spread out across a wide area, the communities need a sound system that can evenly distribute voices intelligibly and prevent audio feedback.

 

In such cases, BL&S can install a direct line-of-sight sound system, including line array speakers, wired up in the air, to ensure all presenters can be heard clearly. Using custom software, they are able to direct the exact right sound pressure level across the entire seating area. This is one example of how BL&S helps participants communicate with one another, despite social distancing.

 

Outdoor movies

Many cinemas and restaurants are looking to draw customers back through outdoor movie experiences. Yet this involves more than just renting an inflatable screen. The larger spaces can make it difficult to hear movie dialogue clearly and for attendees to get a clear view of the screen, and often the infrastructure on location isn’t set up for this type of equipment. BL&S works with clients to acquire appropriately sized screens, and install and tune sound systems to give customers a stellar moviegoing experience, within their budget. The team also manages logistics such as augmenting existing power systems to accommodate the larger sound system.

 

Graduation ceremonies

This year, graduations are looking very different, with many being held in football fields and other open spaces. It can be hard for people sitting 300 feet away in the audience to be able to see people on the stage clearly. One inventive way BL&S has found to address this issue is through the use of LED walls and special cameras – helping families to enjoy that special moment when their child receives their degree.

 

Full-service video production

During the pandemic, organizations rely on video even more to keep people engaged. Whether you’re looking to make your fundraising gala shine or to drive more organic site traffic to your business, our team is here to help. We make the process seamless, from collaborating with you on creative ideas to executing every detail, including developing scripts, shooting and editing video, and managing production. Single- and multi-cam videos can be created at our virtual studio or the location of your choice.

 

Learn how BL&S can help your big event shine.

 

 

performances and demonstrations to the community. The BL&S team provided full-service video production, including:

 

• Organizing a two-day video shoot of dance, music, and cooking performances as well as interviews
• Setting up specialty lighting for camera
• Editing and producing high-quality video

 

Using multiple cameras and a multi-person camera crew, BL&S captured shots from multiple perspectives, editing footage together in a more visually appealing way than would have been possible with a single camera. This resulted in a set of entertaining video assets, which will be interspersed with live footage throughout the fundraising event.

 

 

Video courtesy of BCNC and the Pao Center.

 

Coolidge Corner outdoor drive-in movie series - aerial view of screen, audience

partner Boston Light & Sound® (BL&S) both for creative insights and technical oversight. As the technical lead and a collaborator on the Provincetown Film Festival since its inception, BL&S was a natural choice to support the special event. BL&S proposed a cost-effective way to implement the client’s request for a distinctive video screen blending technique to dramatic effect. Using a combination of projection technologies, the ceiling of the tent would become a spectacular 80-foot canvas displaying colorful abstract backgrounds and a tribute video.

 

The festival organizers loved the idea, and hired BL&S to execute on its vision, and oversee all audio, visual, and lighting needs for the event.

 

A one-stop-shop for live events

The Live Events team at BL&S provided a complete solution encompassing extensive pre-planning support, site visits, event setup, as well as hands-on technical support throughout the evening. This freed the festival organizers to focus on their special guests.

 

Services included:

 

• Creative and technical guidance. BL&S collaborated on the creative vision for the memorable event, and served as the technical lead for the project, including product selection, installation, testing, and support.
• Video screen blending. This innovative technique involved screen blending striking backgrounds with picture-in-picture sponsorship logos and a tribute video from four projectors via a Barco S3 switcher and a screen blending system to display on the ceiling of the tent.
• Audio support. Guests enjoyed live presentations as well as dancing throughout the evening. BL&S worked on-site to ensure the music and presentations came together smoothly. They also carefully orchestrated the audio, synchronizing the music to the images and videos being displayed in the tent. The Live Events team provided just the right balance of sound, delivering sound clarity for the 200+ guests in the tent, while ensuring sound didn’t carry beyond the grounds where it could disturb neighbors.
• Lighting package. BL&S selected, tested, and installed high-end lighting throughout the tent and surrounding grounds to create an elegant ambiance for the special evening.

 

The festival organizers and their guests were impressed with the inventive display and how seamlessly the technical details came together under the direction of BL&S. Based on the success of this special event, HBO, the event sponsor, has since tapped BL&S to provide live streaming for an LGBTQ panel the company hosted in Provincetown.

 

 

Video screen blending makes the most of motion and audio

Behind-the-scenes preview: Dreamy audio plays while beautiful footage of regionally-appropriate waves and whales flows across the ceiling of the event tent to set the mood for the Provincetown Film Festival's 20th Anniversary Celebration.

 

mixing. The students were excited to give people a new way to experience their art. Throughout the evening, festival guests enjoyed distinctive artwork as well as a jazz band throughout the evening.

 

BL&S continues to support Boston College in producing this event, including BC Arts 2021 – a 3-day, multi-stage affair featuring dozens of student-led music and theatre performances.

Monument. Installing audio-visual equipment for a live concert at a historic monument like this took extreme care. BL&S worked closely with all stakeholders, including HBO’s creative consultant, the Gathery, to ensure compliance with local ordinances and preservation of the important site.

 

BL&S was responsible for all equipment necessary to pull off this first-of-its-kind celebration, from building two truss arches to bringing in staging, to providing high-end lighting. Due to the harbor front venue location, high wind speeds presented a challenge. Accustomed to handling installations in extreme conditions, BL&S was well prepared, battening down the truss structure to ensure its stability. To provide an exceptional audio experience for the audience, BL&S installed a state-of-the-art KARA line array audio system.

 

The Fourth of July celebration was a fabulous experience for concertgoers, and the event coordinators were impressed with how the concert looked and sounded.

 

 

 

• Sourcing and installing a temporary stage, a KARA line array audio system and a generator with a full distro package
• Producing a dramatic light show for the headline act’s entrance

 

The event came together seamlessly and proved to be a success for Jansport.

 

 

crews during the event so performances can flow from one to the next seamlessly.

 

Christmas at Fenway

Broadcast live on NESN every year, Christmas at Fenway gives fans a chance to enjoy holiday festivities, including music and player interviews, at the park and an opportunity to purchase tickets for the upcoming season. To support the event, BL&S provides sound systems of various sizes at different locations across the field, connects them together from their mix position, and distributes the audio to various media outlets. In addition, BL&S sets up an audio interface to enable NESN to conduct interviews with players who aren’t able to be on-site.

 

Red Sox Foundation Events

Each year BL&S donates audio equipment, including “presidential style” teleprompters, for several Red Sox Foundation galas. They also donate equipment and provide on-site support for the Foundation’s Yoga at Fenway fundraiser to assist financially disadvantaged students. The BL&S team sets up a wireless mic, connected to the house sound system, so that attendees can hear the instructor as well as background music throughout the park.

 

In addition to installing and monitoring the audio equipment, BL&S overcame numerous technical challenges associated with live broadcast and performance. For instance, the lengthy time delay from the main loudspeaker cluster to the performer at home plate necessitated the use of in-ear monitors to assist the performer’s concentration so they would not become distracted by the echo effect.

 

Frozen Fenway

Every two years, Fenway hosts exciting hockey matchups and community skating events at an ice rink built right inside the park. BL&S configures the sound system for these festivities. They uncovered an interesting conundrum, however. In an outdoor setting, it’s hard to hear what’s actually happening on the ice. To give fans the experience they were accustomed to hearing at an indoor rink, BL&S clamps omnidirectional microphones to the tops of the boards surrounding the ice so fans can easily hear all the skating and crashes.

 

Fenway Park’s 100-year anniversary

To commemorate the park’s 100-year anniversary, John Williams conducted a special “Fenway Fanfare’’ and Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart took the baton for the national anthem that was punctuated by a flyover of a vintage P-51 Mustang flying wingtip-to-wingtip with an F-16 fighter jet.

 

BL&S worked to ensure that everything went perfectly for this historic event. This involved coordinating wireless microphone frequencies with numerous other frequencies being used in the park, and organizing crews to provide hands-on support for multiple performances throughout the ceremony.

 

International Press Conferences

Managing audio for Red Sox press conferences can be a challenge, with myriad audio feeds taking place simultaneously. BL&S works on-site to ensure equipment is working smoothly. When Daisuke Matsuzaka signed on with the team, for example, BL&S was on hand to ensure that the 40+ live feeds were distributed to media outlets around the world.