stage lighting

Virtual Concert Event Production for Sonic Soul Tribe

July 1, 2020

Onstage Systems helped produce a 12-hour international, virtual concert event for Sonic Soul Tribe. The performance took place in April of 2020 and featured artists and performers from across the United States and abroad performing live on stage and remotely.

Sonic Soul Tribe is a not-for-profit electronic and experimental music and art experience based in Dallas, Texas, born from the Burning Man festival. The collective is a music, art, and production experience that seeks to gift dance, art, and community to those looking for a new way to connect, celebrate, and rejoice in the human experience.

Learn More About Onstage System’s Virtual Event Production Services

The virtual concert was a great challenge to bring together. Logistics demanded coordinating live streaming performers across the world. The event’s 12 hour duration required incredible stamina and discipline from the Onstage team to produce.

To keep the virtual concert entertaining, Onstage Systems mixed video graphics, picture-in-picture, and simultaneous performance feed switching of remote artists’ live streams. In addition to music and spoken word performances, the virtual concert also featured visual performances including body painters, flow artists, fire performers, dancers, and more. This allowed Onstage Systems to marry visually entertaining performances with auditory entertainment by combining performance streams.

Part of the virtual concert included a live, stage performance at the Onstage Systems warehouse in Dallas, Texas. The stage performance was set up and produced with a “safety first” approach. The Onstage team maintained social distancing during setup and live production. The staff followed the latest health safety guidelines and wore masks throughout. Additionally, Onstage coordinated the performers setup in shifts to minimize contact between all staff and performers.

The virtual concert event production was flawlessly executed by a team of camera operators, video technicians, audio technicians, and lighting designers. To bring the Sonic Soul Tribe virtual event all together, the Onstage team relied on premier equipment from Elation Lighting, L-Acoustics, DiGiCo, and Panasonic.

Watch the Sonic Soul Tribe Virtual Concert on Twitch Video on Demand (VOD)

Sports Event Production – A Closer Look Behind the 2019 BMW Dallas Marathon

January 21, 2020

For the last 20 years, Onstage Systems has provided a wide range of sports event production services, including audio, visual, and staging solutions for the BMW Dallas Marathon. Started in 1971, the Dallas Marathon is a massive event that draws international attention from countries like Kenya, Russia, and Mexico. A stellar finish at the Dallas Marathon can qualify runners for the Boston Marathon, which makes this event a critical checkpoint for all professional runners looking to secure a spot at the World Marathon Majors.

Since the Dallas Marathon happens every winter, event production can be a challenge given the unexpected weather conditions. In 2013, the Dallas Marathon was canceled due to an ice storm known as ‘Icepocalypse 2013’ but of course, dedicated runners who prepared for months still came to Dallas to compete.

The weather during the 2019 marathon was perfect for our winter runners and even better for Onstage Systems. After months of planning and careful engineering, we were excited to test out an innovative new design we made exclusively for the BMW Dallas Marathon.

Custom Stage Designs for Special Events

Armed with new custom structures and engineering, the team at Onstage Systems came into the 2019 BMW Dallas Marathon ready to unveil a new design. During a months-long back-and-forth with Marathon coordinators, city officials, race coordinators, and structural engineers, Onstage Systems brought an elegant solution for such a simple yet intricate problem.

Onstage engineered a custom 44-foot wide by an 8-foot tall pedestrian bridge made with a combination of trussing and BilJax decking. Pedestrians could now cross the street without interfering with the runners. To spruce up our custom bridge, we added some hardware so marathon organizers could mount banners and help offset production costs by offering sponsorship space on the most prominent banners.

Creating The Dallas Marathon

Behind the scenes, Onstage Systems providing audio, visual, and staging solutions for the BMW Dallas Marathon — Behind the scenes at 2019 BMW Dallas Marathon: Onstage System’s control room for audio, video, and lighting underneath the viewing platform

From a sports event production standpoint, there are dozens of elements that need to be designed and built if you want to produce a successful marathon.

The focal point of any marathon is the start and finish line. Similar to previous Dallas Marathon events, we created a custom start line truss support structure complete with a giant video wall for the runners and spectators in the plaza. This year, our video wall was equipped with video switching and cameras that interfaced with the WFAA live broadcast.

In 2016, BMW signed on as the official partner of the annual race, changing the name from the Dallas Marathon to the BMW Dallas Marathon. To display their latest fleet of luxury vehicles, we designed a BMW display platform.

Additional structures included a custom VIP viewing platform, custom structures for the Front of House (FOH) MC and Tech World, a full audio system for the start/finish line, and lighting accents for the BMW display.

Celebrating Half a Century of Dallas Marathons

Next year, the Dallas Marathon will celebrate its 50th anniversary, making it the longest-running marathon in Texas. We may not be able to predict the weather for next year’s race, but one thing Onstage Systems can guarantee is a commitment to providing the Dallas Marathon with the highest level of event production with the pinnacle of audio, visual, lighting, and staging solutions.

4 Ways to Enhance Your Concert Stage Design

January 8, 2020

Your concert stage design allows you to intimately connect with your audience and showcase your creativity in all its glory. Therefore, on the day of your event, the last thing you want is to perform on a stage that wasn’t optimized for visibility. Here are 4 ways you can enhance your concert stage design and create memorable moments for your audience:

1. Consider The Audience’s Point of View

Crowd ready to view the concert from any angle

No matter how impressive your concert stage looks, if your audience can’t see you, it won’t matter how many special effects you include in the performance. Before you start designing the stage, take a closer look at the audience’s point of view.

Is your venue located on an incline or small hill that requires the audience to look up? Would it be difficult for those standing in the back of the venue to see your performance? Are you expecting a large turnout or is this a smaller event?

Depending on your audience’s visibility, crowd size, and the design of the venue, you’ll need to adjust your stage design to ensure everyone in the crowd can see every part of your performance.

2. Create Lasting Memories with Memorable Lighting

Knowing how to properly light a stage requires a mix of technical expertise and a splash of creativity. But if you want to bring your concert stage design to the next level, you’ll want to invest in memorable lighting effects that set the mood.

In addition to stage and spotlights, you can work with an event production company like Onstage Systems that has an all-encompassing inventory of LED fixtures, decor lighting, atmospheric lights, dimmers, and any other light fixture you’d need.

These upgraded lighting setups will shower your venue in colorful hues and transform the atmosphere in the room. The secret to designing an ideal lighting setup is to align your performance with your lights. Do you have a high energy, dynamic performance? Consider automated lights that change with the music. Is your performance sentimental and ethereal? Opt for mood lights that complement the music.

3. If You Can’t Build A Tall Stage, Build A Wide One

Stage design is enhanced with a wide stage

The size and scale of your stage has a lasting impact on how the audience experiences the performance. A small stage surrounded by a 360-degree audience offers an intimate feel while a massive stadium with a giant stage offers a completely different concert experience.

Your ability to imagine creative stage designs is limitless, but the technicalities of your venue may constrain how large you can design your stage.

Instead of building a towering stage with sky-high lights and special effects, opt for a wide stage that envelops your audience instead. Wide stages are perfect if your venue is indoors and constrained by the height of the building. A wider stage also allows you to creatively segment your performance into sections so different parts of the performance can take place in various sections of the stage.

4. Cover Up Wires and Cluttered Equipment

Stage design is enhanced by covering the clutter

Now that you’ve secured a venue and established a layout for your stage design, the last item on your to-do list is to cover up wires and mask any cluttered audio visual equipment.

As you’ll quickly discover during your setup, wires, crates, and AV equipment can accumulate on the stage and distract your audience. The easiest way to hide unruly gear is to cloak your mess behind curtains, fences, or other design elements.

If for some reason you’re unable to discreetly cover your tracks, another solution is to use lighting equipment to dim your cluttered areas and spotlight the performers. This simple act of misdirection will keep the crowd focused on the show instead of the clutter.

Putting Your Stage Design Together

When you design your concert stage, your priority should be to enhance the customer experience. Concertgoers want to feel immersed in the performance with zero distractions to get in the way of their enjoyment.

Although these four tips can help guide you towards an enhanced concert experience, there are always unforeseen circumstances that can make your path towards success more difficult. Whether it’s a change of weather, last-minute venue relocation, or a crate with missing equipment, anything can happen.

Avoid the stress of designing your concert stage and contact an event production company like Onstage Systems. Our team is comprised of industry veterans who understand how to produce memorable concerts and have experience attending dozens of concerts themselves. At Onstage Systems, we aren’t just event production specialists, we’re music fans just like you who want nothing more than to create lasting memories.

What Is Stage Lighting and When Should You Use It

May 31, 2018

types of stage lighting Stage lighting is lighting that is needed to light up a stage, and it’s a powerful tool for all events.

It’s a way to increase attention at your event and used to highlight people, stage backdrops and props, and more!

Taking a deeper dive, we find that we can direct someone's focus with light drawing their eyes around the stage.

Lighting can communicate emotion using color, texture and different amounts of light.

An experienced lighting designer can transform a simple event into an exciting experience. From conferences to concerts, or sales meetings to church services, stage lighting can be used for any type of event.

Providing More Than Light

Stage lighting provides four main functions at events: Visibility, Motivation, Composition, and Mood.

Visibility:

Staging lighting provides visibility and direction for where the audience should direct their attention.

Motivation:

For most events, lighting designers strive to make the light look natural for the environment and setting.

Composition:

For events like plays, the lighting director will work closely with the scene designer to make sure the background and important props or people are visible to the audience.

Mood:

Lighting has the ability to change the mood of a crowd, whether it’s slow and mellow or colorful and upbeat.

Stage Lighting Positions

Most stage lighting designers focus on five main positions of stage lighting.

Front Lights

– These lights are the primary source of lighting for the event.

Side Lighting

– Primarily used to highlight the sides of the performer’s body.

High Side Lighting

– These shine the light on the top of the performer’s head, neck and shoulders so you can see their facial expressions.

Back Lighting

– These lights create depth and separate the performer with the background.

Down Lights

– This lighting is used to wash an area of the stage with soft or harsh light.

Types of Stage Lighting

Automated Lighting

Automated lighting can be a flexible and economical alternative to stationary lighting. It’s perfect for events in a theater, nightclub, concert hall or church.

Conventional Fixtures and Spotlights

Unlike automated lighting, conventional lighting fixtures provide only one function, and that's illumination. We recommend conventional lighting for conferences, company events or large seminars where there’s only one person speaking at a time.

LED Lighting

LED lighting is the most energy-efficient way of lighting an event. On-stage performers appreciate the comfort of LEDs, as they emit very little heat and they rarely need replacing.

Equipment You May Need

Mixing Console
Decor Lighting
Dimmers
Motors & Lifts
Backdrops
Trusses
Atmosphere & Special Effects, such as: Fog Machines, Confetti Cannons, and Strobe Lights

Learn more about our Stage Lighting Equipment Rentals »

Need to rent equipment to light your next event? Contact Onstage Systems today!