In the summer of 2015, UVLD provided lighting design for an event hosted by Berkshire Hathaway Home Services for 3,500 real estate agents at the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event consisted of three meetings, and the final night featured a fundraiser with cast of 22 celebrity headliners: singers, dancers, aerialists, and other circus performers. Performers were brought in from all over the US, and they came together just once for a rehearsal before the live performance.

The production featured an ultra-wide design: two 100’ screens flanking a 20’ tall LED circle screen mounted on a rotating base, which swiveled to reveal cast members and other scenic elements. The audience was whisked away on a multi-city virtual tour to experience the rhythms of various regions, making stops in Rio, Paris, New York, and other cities, and each destination featured a unique musical style — dupstep, hip-hop, country, classic rock, and so on. Multi-channel audio and a live band synced with the video. The final stop was Las Vegas, and audience members were invited to join the dance party on stage.

Jeff Nellis of UVLD served as the lighting designer for this event. “It was quite an undertaking for the amount of time available to us,” Nellis said. “We had five or six hours to rehearse a full cast, orchestra, all the audio work that had to happen, turntables, cars, and special effects.” With so much projection in the room, and with the rigging point over the stage in use by the aerial performers, the team had to be creative to get lighting into positions that served the show best.

“This included placing units all along the full width the screens, on top, and also on the ground,” Nellis explained. “We also made use of vertical trusses on stage, which were hung with MAC Auras. They filled in the space between the round vertical screen and the wide screens with some color and background; they also provided a continuously dynamic element. The workhorse was a large V truss upstage, which we hung with 22 MAC Viper Profiles. We also had a system of 30 Viper DX Wash units providing front light.” The rig included 46 Mac Viper Profiles, 13 Mac Viper Performances, 34 Viper Wash DX units, 54 Mac Auras, and 24 Clay Paky Sharpys. Lighting gear was supplied by Christie Lites.