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lighting design

Erykah Badu Annual Birthday Bash

June 5, 2023

Erykah-Badu-Birthday-Bash-Deep-Ellum-Onstage-Systems-Event-Production

Erykah Badu kicked off her 2023 birthday bash at The Factory venue in Dallas with the famously-behind artist right on time this year—can you believe that? She took center stage, strutting her stuff, adorned in a mirrored top hat and fluffy white furs. But what made it all come together were the amazing people, props, and stellar sonic experience that laid the groundwork for an epic event.

Erykah Badu has enjoyed another incredible year. Heck, she even graced the cover of Vogue in March this year. And guess what? Her fan base continues to grow despite not dropping any new tracks in 2023.

Onstage Systems was a key player in Badu’s amazing 2023 birthday celebration, thanks to our resourceful solutions and guaranteed wow factor. It’s how we always roll, impressing the crowd with behind-the-scenes creativity. And the confetti explosion raining down from above, filling the air with a burst of multicolored happiness, that was us, too. And let us tell you, no one wanted to miss a beat on Badu’s 52nd cake day, and no one did.

Being in business for over 40 years, collaborating with other event professionals is natural to us. It’s why clients like Erykah Badu and others have us back for their performances time after time.


Committed to Creating Lasting Memories
You, too, can prepare for a wild ride of stimulating experiences and unforgettable memories. Onstage Systems is your go-to full-service live event production company, offering top-level turn-key solutions that guarantee to leave lasting impressions. From your initial concept to our flawless event presentation, we cover every detail, leaving you to take the credit and bask in the glory. 
Onstage Systems’ Featured Work Speaks for Itself

Sometimes, Badu decides to improvise, switch things up, and take the production in a new visionary direction. This annual event is always off the charts with its eclectic vibes, spontaneous nature, and unexpected twists. It certainly keeps us on our toes, that’s for sure. But hey, Onstage Systems loves a good challenge; it’s what keeps the team’s creative juices flowing.

Onstage Systems has proven time and time again to be one of the go-to companies for Badu’s epic annual birthday bashes. In fact, we have been rocking the audio and backline support for her parties for the past several years, earning her unwavering trust in our unrivaled expertise for creativity. It’s what we do; pride ourselves on the ability to switch creative lanes and roll with the punches at the drop of a hat.

So when it comes to making Badu’s birthday bashes truly unforgettable events for all, Onstage Systems has her back. We make it our business to know exactly what we must do and how to deliver that magic.

See, Onstage Systems has a family-oriented culture, always putting people front and center of what we do. It’s why we can hold our heads high and deliver seamless, unforgettable big stress-free experiences for our clients every time—without expectation.

Discover How Onstage Systems Can Add Magic to Your Next Event

Category: Featured Work, Special Events Production

The State Fair of Texas, Illumination Sensation

November 9, 2021

State-Fair-of-Texas-Illumination-Sensation-Onstage-Systems
Photo Courtesy of the State Fair of Texas

Onstage Systems returned to work at The State Fair of Texas this year after last year’s Fair was canceled due to COVID-19. The State Fair has been running annually since 1886, and 2020 marks one of the few years the Fair has been canceled in its 135-year run.

Hosted in Dallas, TX, Onstage Systems’ hometown at the historic Fair Park, the State Fair of Texas is an annual celebration of the Lone Star State. The State Fair promotes Texas agriculture, education, and community involvement with quality entertainment and family-friendly fun. It is one of the largest in the United States, with more than two million visitors each year welcomed by its iconic mascot, the world’s tallest cowboy, the 55-foot Big Tex.

Onstage Systems has worked with their client, Interlaced Productions and the State Fair of Texas since the ‘90s on the Illumination Sensation show. Originally held inside the Cotton Bowl, the show has since transitioned to the Fair’s water gardens.

The nighttime event is a dazzle of music and live performance complemented with light and video shimmering through the water gardens and illuminating the National Landmark Fair Park complex with washes of vivid color against the night sky. A sight to behold, the Illumination Sensation combines high-energy pop music, fireworks, dancers, acrobats, and lights with synchronized pyrotechnics to create a delightful spectacle.

Onstage Systems provides the audio, lighting, and video projection for the show, with this year’s run being sponsored by Mattress Firm. The show was created by Onstage Systems’ long-time event partner, Interlaced Productions. Onstage Systems and Interlaced Productions have been working together for over 30 years to bring this performance to Dallasites and visitors all over the country.

This year’s Illumination Sensation had a few extra challenges for the team. First were the added safety parameters due to COVID-19. With the live event industry rebounding this summer and Onstage Systems having two certified COVID-19 Compliance Officers on staff, the extra precautions are now second nature for all Onstage Systems events. Also, due to COVID-19 and the canceled 2020 State Fair of Texas, event budgets were a little tighter for the 2021 State Fair of Texas. However, Onstage Systems and Interlaced Productions came together to create a brilliant light experience for the millions of fairgoers.

Shows happen each night of the State Fair of Texas’s 24-day annual run. The Illumination Sensation is a must-see for anyone attending future State Fairs. Just be sure to arrive early to beat the crowd and pick out a great spot to see the show!

See More Featured Work

Category: Featured Work, Special Events Production

How to Turn Your Next Event Into A Successful Hybrid Event

September 10, 2021

Hybrid events aren’t going anywhere. The addition of virtual experience components to in-person events looks to be the continued future for the events industry. According to a survey from EventMB, 67% of respondents agree: hybrid is the roadmap for events going forward. In fact, 71% of the respondents said they will continue to employ a digital strategy after COVID concerns pass. So, consider how you are going to evolve your future events by adding a hybrid component.

The critical factor is making sure you are making your event a hybrid event in the right way. For example, a hybrid event is NOT an in-person event with a live stream or video-on-demand replays of the live event. Creating a successful hybrid event means taking both your in-person and virtual audiences into account during event development and programming.

successful-hybrid-event-header

Types of Events That Can Be Made into Hybrid Events

  • Awards
  • Career Fairs
  • Commencements
  • Conferences
  • Educational Courses, Training, & Workshops
  • Expos
  • Fundraisers
  • Galas
  • Networking
  • Seminars
  • Summits
  • Tradeshows
  • Panels
  • Parties & Weddings
  • Product Announcements, Launches, & Demos
  • Internal events
  • Kickoffs
  • Large Meetings
  • Townhalls

A virtual component can enhance nearly any in-person event to turn it into a successful hybrid event.

The Benefits of Hybrid Events

The biggest pushback about adding a virtual component to a traditionally in-person event is that it will split the event’s attendees, and fewer people will show up in person. But, what we have found over the years is that virtual events don’t split your event’s audience. Instead, turning your in-person event into a hybrid event through a virtual component increases your audience size. The majority of remote attendees to a hybrid event would not participate if the event were offered as an in-person-only experience. When event admission, travel expenses, or simply taking the time away from the office prevents in-person attendance, a virtual experience opens your event to a broader audience.

Hybrid Event Scalability

Another essential benefit of hybrid events is scalability. Many of the growing pains associated with growing an in-person-only event are bypassed by turning your event into a successful hybrid event. Scaling the virtual component of a hybrid event for hundreds or thousands of more attendees is significantly easier and more cost-efficient than organizing the same growth for an in-person-only event.

Improved Analytics

Getting accurate numbers and metrics for an in-person is a difficult and often costly affair. Digital platforms and spaces are built with analytics in mind from day one. Event producers have a much easier and accurate measure of a hybrid event’s digital consumption. Instead of counting people coming in the door of an exhibit hall, many digital platforms can tell you how many people participated, in some cases down to the minute. It is much easier to determine what parts of your event were hot and which were not. These improved analytics make it much easier to plan your next event and rely less on guesswork and gut feeling.

Improved Flexibility

Hybrid events give you increased agility to pivot your event to changing circumstances. Travel restrictions, natural disasters, inclement weather, and shutdowns can wreak havoc on an in-person event. Often these upsetting circumstances can force an event to be postponed or outright canceled. Adding a digital component to your event to create a hybrid event provides you the flexibility, if needed, to move would-be in-person attendees to the virtual programming you already have in place as part of your event with much less work.

What Makes a Hybrid Event a Success?

The primary factor that leads to whether a hybrid event is a success or not is if it is engaging for your audience, especially digital audiences. What can your event do to make it a more fulfilling experience for your virtual audience than watching a live or recorded video stream of the event? Unique elements like behind-the-scenes and virtual attendee exclusive content are an excellent place to start. Can you offer breakout rooms, live chat, polling, or Q&A sessions for your virtual attendees to enhance their experience? Think of how you can turn your virtual attendees from a passive audience into an active audience.

Design Your Event Programming for Hybrid Audiences

One of the best ways to ensure your hybrid event is a success is by designing your event for attendance for in-person and remote audiences. It’s crucial your virtual attendees don’t feel like second-class attendees who are can only access parts of your event. Virtual audiences understand they will not have the same event floor experience as someone attending the event in person. But, think of how you can make their event experience as close to the in-person experience as possible.

Alternatively, you can design your event from the group up as two different experiences. For in-person attendees, you may want to focus on the networking element, meet and greets, booths, and mixers. Those experiences all play to the strengths of the in-person attendee. Meanwhile, remote attendees can focus on speakers, panels, and digital-first workshops. Because nothing stops an in-person attendee from going to these events in person or taking a break from the event floor to participate in a virtual session from their hotel room, consider what exclusive content you can create that caters to the strengths of each audience.

Produce Your Event Like a TV Program

Think of your event as a television show filmed in front of a live audience. Try creating smaller, in-person audience experiences and focus your event budget on increasing the production quality of your video, audio, lighting, and effects for remote audiences. Enhancing production quality in this way will make your hybrid event a better experience for both virtual and in-person attendees.

With this in mind, it’s critical to choose a venue for your hybrid event that has the AV technology, support, and internet quality to support your hybrid event. Experienced, full-service event production companies like Onstage Systems can help you choose a venue and work around any limitations.

Keep Your Programming Fresh

As previously stated, engagement is the number one factor for hybrid event success and success for any event type. Look for opportunities to mix up your programming, keep it fresh, and avoid the bog-standard corporate keynote, breakout, and repeat tendency. New, engaging content is essential when you’re dealing with virtual audiences. Their email, social media, and the rest of the internet are just a click away.

Digital attention spans are shorter than those of in-person attendees. Keep your programming focused and be concise. Keeping your content shorter and liberally structured with small breaks can help keep your audience fresh and engaged for a longer period of time.

Hybrid Event Pitfalls to Avoid

Creating a hybrid component for your event can lead you into some unexpected pitfalls, especially if you’re new to building an event to service in-person and remote audiences. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid when planning your successful hybrid event.

Not Treating Your Audiences as Equals

It cannot be overemphasized how important it is that both your in-person audience and virtual audience feel like they’re getting a fantastic experience from your event. That means you need to go out of your way to ensure each audience has special moments of experiences that give them that sense of fulfillment. To craft a unique and memorable experience for your virtual audience, you can’t just set up a camera and mic and record what’s going on for the live audience. Include parts in your event programming that provide an experience that cannot be duplicated or better executed for other types of attendees.

Scheduling Your Event Without Thought to Timezones

It can be easy to forget that your virtual attendees may be tuning in from a different timezone. If you have a keynote speaker that starts at 8 AM EST, that’s 5 AM for your attendees on the West Coast. This problem is compounded further if you need to consider a sizable overseas audience. Assess the geographic distribution of your attendees and give priority to the most-anticipated parts of your event, scheduling them in the most convenient time slots for the majority of your virtual attendees. You might also consider some early-morning or late-night programming for your event that your faraway attendees to access according to their schedules.

Spending Your Budget in the Wrong Place

Overspending on food and beverage budgets or an oversized venue is not uncommon. Introducing a virtual component to an in-person event can allow you to spend your event budget in new and different ways. Conversely, you must avoid skimping on your A/V budget. A sizable portion of your hybrid event’s audience is dependent on good video, sound, and lighting to get the most out of the experience. People are not going to be happy with a subpar virtual event experience.

Complicated Technology and Tech Problems

Technology issues can be a death knell for the virtual component of your hybrid event. You need the resources to handle complicated technology, tech gremlins, and other logistical issues. These issues can range from picking a venue with subpar internet capabilities, a difficult-to-use virtual event platform, or an amateur event partner. That’s why it’s best to partner with a capable, full-service event production company like Onstage Systems, which has a successful history of putting on in-person, virtual, and hybrid events of all types. A great events partner can help you plan for a successful hybrid event from the start and assist you in picking the venue, software platforms, and equipment to create a successful hybrid event.

Successful Hybrid Events with Onstage Systems

A recent GBTA study found that the number of hybrid events is expected to double compared to last year. Creating your successful hybrid event means partnering with a company you can trust to help bring your event to life. Work with a professional event production company with decades of experience producing all manner of events: from helping put on concert tours across the US for some of the biggest names in music to black-tie galas, corporate conferences, virtual holiday drone shows, and more. Let Onstage Systems help make your next event into an unforgettable hybrid event.

Contact Onstage Systems

Category: Special Events Production, Concerts & Tours, Corporate Events, Music Festivals, Worship Events, Sporting Events, Trade Shows

FWSO America Strong Televised Concert, Virtual Event Audio Visual

July 24, 2020

Onstage Systems was honored to be a part of the creation of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s 4th of July concert, virtual event. The “Celebrating the Best of America in a Trying Time” concert event took place at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth and featured guest appearances from various Fort Worth feature performers with a special guest appearance by Fort Worth native and Broadway star Major Attaway.

FWSO Virtual Event Performance

Featured Performers

  • Major Attaway (Broadway’s Aladdin)
  • Fei-Fei Dong (The Cliburn)
  • Megan Koch (Fort Worth Opera)
  • David Schrenk and Andre Silva (Texas Ballet Theater)

​​The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has performed their 4th of July concert performance at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens as part of its Concerts in the Garden (CITG) series for over 20 years. Onstage Systems has had the pleasure of supporting the FWSO and their collective of truly majestic musicians for over 25 years.

Watch the Virtual Event Concert

This year the CITG event was canceled due to COVID-19 public health concerns. Instead the performance virtual event production was pre-recorded in the closed Dickies Arena on June 26th and broadcast on July 4th by ABC-affiliate, WFAA. The pyrotechnics display was provided by Pyro Shows of Texas. The recorded concert was then hosted online for viewing by the FWSO and WFAA.

2019 George Strait Concert, Dickies Arena
Photo from Fort Worth Star-Telegram

​​The event’s 100 person attendance of performers, building, and technical crews was in vast contrast to the last Dickies Arena event that Onstage was a part of. The last time Onstage Systems provided production services at an event at the Dickies Arena was George Strait’s 14,000 capacity crowd per night with two sold out performances in 2019, less than one year ago.

Virtual Event Audio

Onstage Systems provided virtual event audio design, multi-track recording, post-editing, and mixing through a Digico SD10 console with over 90 individual channels. A major challenge facing the FWSO musicians was the ability to hear each other. To comply with social distancing the usual two foot span between musicians was increased to over six feet. Additionally, the arena lacked the familiar acoustic sound shell. To compensate Onstage Systems provided various monitors (IEMs, wedges, hot spots) and L’acoustics Syva for fill.

 

Virtual Event Lighting for Concerts

In addition to the event’s audio production, Onstage Systems provided all the stage lighting design, programming, and operation. The 75’ square performance area was lit by Varilite stage lighting fixtures. The fixtures were selected for their intensity and features to properly cover the performance area. Onstage further collaborated with WFAA to optimize the stage lighting for video recording.

Event organizers hope the recorded performance to be a one time affair and the FWSO will be able to resume their Concerts in the Garden event production in 2021. Learn more about Onstage System’s audio visual services or see more featured work.

Category: Featured Work, Special Events Production, Concerts & Tours

Coyote Drive-In Theater Concert

July 1, 2020

The May concert was produced by Onstage Systems at the Coyote Drive-In Theater in Fort Worth. The event was a fun, but challenging event to produce. The Coyote Drive-In Theater concert also had the significance of being one of the first events to bring live music back to Fort Worth in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown.

coyote drive-in theater concert audience
Photo by Andrew Sherman – Lone Sound Magazine

Featured Performers

  • Paul Cauthen
  • Vincent Neil Emerson
  • Nikki Lane
  • Remy Reilly

Drive-In Theater Concert Event Challenges

drive-in concert performers and sign
Photo by Andrew Sherman – Lone Sound Magazine

The biggest challenge was accounting for the health and safety of everyone involved. That was why the Coyote Drive-In Theater made a great venue choice for hosting a live, outdoor concert. The audience area was large and designed for attendees to be separated in parking spots. Attendees were assigned parking to every other parking spot. This helped create natural social distancing space between attendees. Onstage Systems also followed the latest health guidelines for hand sanitation and wore masks in close proximity. Coyote Drive-In Theater helped ensure social distancing with signage and limiting occupancy around the restroom and concession areas.

See more featured work from Onstage Systems

Onstage Systems fully utilized the Coyote Drive-In Theater’s space while providing the addition of the lighting, mobile staging, and full audio support appropriate to a concert of this size, to included FM transmission. This allowed attendees the option to listen to the concert over their car FM radios while enjoying the air conditioning. However, many concert attendees took the opportunity to get a little sun and fresh air, listening to a full L’acoustics concert PA system out in the open air from lawn chairs and pickup beds.

Photo by Andrew Sherman – Lone Sound Magazine

The second big challenge Onstage Systems had to overcome to make the event a success was the Coyote Drive-In Theater’s schedule. The drive-in was in full operation with nightly movie times starting after dark. The Friday show did not end until 11 PM. The Onstage team hustled in the dark to set up the stage, lighting, and all the integration for the Saturday afternoon show. And once the show was over they struck the scene in two hours and had Coyote Drive-In Theater back to normal in time for its 8:45 PM movie.

While the Coyote Drive-In Theater concert was a one-time event, Onstage Systems looks forward to doing more drive-in concert events in the future. In addition to producing live in-person events, Onstage has experience producing live streams and other virtual events.

Learn more about Onstage Systems virtual event services HERE.

Photo by Andrew Sherman – Lone Sound Magazine

Category: Featured Work, Concerts & Tours, Music Festivals

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