01.09.16 The Gift of Christmas

Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano Texas has a long history of presenting some of the most creative and cutting-edge Christmas productions in the country. Having decided to re-imagine the production and creative direction of the show this year, Prestonwood turned to long-time design collaborators UVLD to deliver an all new production and lighting design as well as provide overall technical direction of the show. The design featured an all new show deck, 150′-wide video surface made up of 16 individual panels tracked to move in pairs for varying configurations. The panels opened to reveal a 350-person choir framed above and below by high-res LED surfaces. The production design was lead by UVLD designer Matt Webb in association with David Sumner. Matt was also the lighting designer for the event. Greg Norgeot served as our technical director, overseeing a large-scale install on a tight timeline in an unconventional space.

The video system utilized a Coolux Pandora’s box system to provide playback for a visual canvas that was over 12k wide. Cameron Yeary designed and oversaw all of the video playback components. Each of the panels also provided encoder feedback to the Pandora system to allow for real-time tracking of the projection to the panels. Video content was designed by Jordan Monk.

Gemini Stage Lighting provided a large rental package to argument the church existing lighting inventory. The lighting feature over 220 automated fixtures. Built into the set was over 300m of LED tape providing visual interest and another dimension to the look of the show deck. Nick Deel was the production electrician.

In addition to the tracking panels the show had over 31 total axis of automation. Flying 7 angels, a sleigh, 6 drummers and 1 soloist. All flying effects were done by ZFX under the watchful eye of lead flying director Brian Owens.

XL video provided all of the LED for the project and projection was from Media Solutions.Communilux built the scenic, with Dan Kirsch as our Production Carpenter. Rigging was done by Clay Carter.