In April, UVLD’s Matthew Piercy served as the Lighting Director and Programmer for the NFL Draft. This was Piercy’s eighth consecutive year working the draft, which aired on ESPN and the NFL network and featured two nights of primetime coverage for rounds 1-3 and a full day of coverage for rounds 4-7.

After several years in Radio City Music Hall in NYC, the event moved to the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago in 2015. We had the pleasure of returning this year.

With the move to the Auditorium Theatre, the look of the show was completely revamped. The challenge of this event is to provide exciting and dynamic visual content for the camera while also supporting video content and the action taking place on stage.

The programming covered multiple areas including the main stage, the ESPN broadcast set — which is on a platform in the house of the theatre — and a massive green room where prospects wait until they are drafted.

Piercy, who worked with Lighting Designer Michael Franks, said, “It’s been great to see the show evolve over the years from a static set with some stand alone video elements into a contemporary show piece that uses both video and lighting to tell the viewers on TV as well as in the audience what’s happening.”