The HP technology show

An event that blends the techniques of corporate presentations and show business

Light & Sound America

October 2007

By: David Barbour

Photography: Jacob Coakley

This is, of course, the era of the Incredible Shrinking Production Schedule. In virtually every project covered in this magazine, at least one person takes note of how little time was available to bring a complex production to fruition. This can be especially true of corporate events, for which official approval can sometimes come late in the day. For example, consider the HP (Hewlett-Packard) Technology Forum and Expo, staged at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas earlier this summer. The event featured an elaborate set design, complex video projections, and plenty of lighting and sound gear along with appearances by the rock group Train, the acrobatic dance troupe Antigravity, and stars of the Discovery Channel series, Mythbusters - all for an audience of 75,000. And it was realized in six weeks.

Indeed, the event started off with a flourish, as members of Antigravity dropped from the rafters and flew across the stage, accompanied by live music and themed video; meanwhile, fog rolled in, and the lights came up to reveal HP's CEO and president, Mark Hurd, who gave the keynote address. The fun continued on the same high-technology level throughout. A central theme of the show was "Turning IT on its Head," a task that the Staging Solutions team, a Houston-based firm that specializes in creative design and event production for small meetings, mid-sized programs, and large-scale events, certainly fulfilled.

"It's been an amazing evolution," says David Williams, vice-president of Staging Solutions, discussing his company, HR and the evolution of HP's signature event. "We began producing mega-events for Compaq 10 years ago; when HP acquired Compaq, they had their own big show, HP World. The combination established HPTF one of the largest of such events in the world." Dave Lawson, Staging Solution's lead producer and HP account manager says, "We are proud to be a part of this remarkable legacy; working with HP's first-class event team has raised the bar to produce signature events that will have industry insiders talking about them for years to come."

The parade of events

A driving force behind the project was Sean McCarthy, creative director at Staging Solutions. According to Lawson, "Sean designed the show, the setting, and the lighting - he also set the creative vision of the show." His design featured a 20 x 26' motion-controlled LED wall, two 25 x 75' multimedia projection canvasses, two 8 x 8' hydraulic platforms for product reveals, and a multi-tiered curvilinear stage that brought presenters and performers right into the audience.

"The event started on Monday, at 5pm," says Lawson. "It featured Mark Hurd, who was followed by Ann Livermore, the second in command. We wanted a dynamic opening - something that was very, very Las Vegas. We also wanted to get the audience focused on the stage, to bombard them with something that presented the message in a cool way."

"The band played The Who's 'Baba O'Reilly,' and, as the LED wall started to move, the Antigravity performers appeared out of the catwalk," says Lawson.

"They wore business suits to echo the message of turning IT on its head - they came out of the catwalk headfirst. That, plus all the imagery moving across the screen, the fog rolling in, the lighting effects, and the speech really got the message out. We got a standing ovation. Then Jack Novia, the emcee - he's the head of the North American enterprise solutions group - did some giveaways - some iPAQs [the company's handheld PCs] and other handheld devices. An Antigravity performer would come flying out of the sky and hand the winner his or her prize; the first winner was pretty startled - but, after one or two giveaways, they were really looking to see where the next performer would come from."

Much of the second day was devoted to individual business units rolling out their new products. But, to kick things off on an energetic note, says McCarthy, "The band really took the focus, with a dueling-banjos-style competition between the lead violinist and the sax player." As the musicians played, the LED screen flew into place, providing IMAG images that heightened the effect of the playoff. "We had people clapping and dancing in their seats," says Lawson. This was followed by a series of presentations from various business units, including the introduction of a new printer - a 1,000 lb. product that was revealed via hydraulic elevator. Much of the day, however, was devoted to no fewer than 86 breakout sessions, held all over Mandalay Bay and its neighbor, The Four Seasons; attendees also checked out new products in an HP exhibit hall.

The third day kicked off with Marco Tempest, an illusionist who works with video to create many of his effects. After making a dramatic appearance, he conjured up an HP sales staff member - who appeared from under the moving LED screen, his movements obscured by the smoke provided by Pirate, a Vegas-based effects company. Another key moment of the day was the appearance of the HP Orange County Chopper; a custom motorcycle that appeared on the hydraulic lift during the introduction of Todd Bradley, leader of the HP personal computing group.

"Because the bike is custom-made," says McCarthy, "it was difficult to fork up on the platform, so we had to engineer a way, using pallets, to get it up there." Lawson adds, "We found a burly stagehand with a bunch of tattoos and put him up there; he rode up with the cycle. It was a pretty dramatic entrance - Bradley was introducing the cycle, there were fog and lighting effects, and here came the cycle. There was a graphic of the cycle on the screen at first, so the audience didn't expect to see it live."

Thursday began with more action from the band, followed by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters, who presented a blooper reel from the show, followed by a question-and-answer session. At the end of the day, there was a pause to reset the stage; then came the opening act, Wordplay, followed by Train. McCarthy worked with Train's lighting director to work out a series of cues using the show's lighting rig. They also took advantage of the productions Catalyst system to create imagery for each number - the U.S. flag for "American Girl," abstract bubbles for "Drops of Jupiter," and the Golden Gate Bridge for "Going to California."

Intelligible speech and rock 'n roll sound

Rusty Bumgardner, the event's sound designer notes that this wasn't the first time that Staging Solutions had put together an event that combined corporate messaging with multiple entertainment elements, so his sound rig was designed to deliver intelligible speech and high volume reinforcement to all members of the audience, as needed.

The sound system consisted of multiple V-DOSC line arrays from L-Acoustics, with additional fill provided by the same company's KUDO cabinets. "We had front side arrays at right and left and a large center cluster," says Bumgardner. "We also had mid-left, center and right flown clusters, plus two sub line arrays in the back and two left and right floor subs as well." For Train's performance, he adds, "We brought the stage center fills down and the subs that were stacked upstage were brought out, which gave us something more like a festival setup."

Given the large array of video elements, Bumgardner says, there was the inevitable issue of making sure that the line arrays didn't block anyone's views of the screens. The smaller Kudo boxes were helpful here, and he added some L-Acoustics' compact ARC units to the arrays for the same reason. Additional front fill was provided by EAW 260s; the same brand of units was used backstage as monitors for HP VIPs waiting for their moments onstage. Monitors included a dozen L-Acoustics 115 XTs, plus MTD 108 powered units which were used backstage and to provide front fill.

The mic system consisted of 12 Shure UHF wireless handheld and lavaliere units, used generally by the presenters and for question-and-answer sessions with the audience. Everyone used Shure PSM70O with Ultimate Ears UE5 in-ear monitors. Given the large number of staff distributed all over the venue-stagehands, riggers, and automation and control personnel - an extensive Telex communications system was put into place.

Yamaha PM5Ds were to be found at both the front of house and in monitor world. "We embrace digital consoles and incorporate them into our designs," says Bumgardner "The flexibility that they afford is great." Nevertheless, he adds, he employed a bit of outboard gear "to warm things up a bit; for example, we had a TC. [Electronic] Finalizer, to act as a smart limiting system to maximize headroom. But that was pretty much the extent of it; we used the Panagraphics function in the PM5D for EQs." The EAW Smaart system was used to align and calibrate the rig in advance of the show.

The time frame

As noted earlier the production had to happen at supersonic speed. To help save time, McCarthy says that he and Eckerman opted to previsualize the design. "Troy has an unlimited ESP Vision license," he says. "I used VectorWorks to create a light plot and sent it to Troy; he did a couple of days of preprogramming in ESR getting the patch wiring out, and creating groups, presets, and focuses. Troy is phenomenal to work with, because he really knows his stuff and works fast. Even so, a little bit of ESP Vision can be really helpful."

Work began on the Thursday before the Monday opening, installing the motors for the flying LED wall during a 24-hour shift that spilled into Friday, as the rigging system was installed. Bumgardner had consulted beforehand with Train's sound engineer. "I was scheduled to be the overnight production manager during load-in. Then the sound guy who was slated to do the event couldn't make it to load-in due to an unforeseen illness in his family." "lt was a trial by fire," adds Lawson.

In the meantime, a flu virus started to spread through the sound crew, adding an extra note of unpredictability. "We lost two guys who never came back, and others were out from time to time," he says. "They were all getting sick." And, says, Lawson, "One guy's wife went into labor. PRG [the audio and lighting gear supplier] was facilitating guys as fast as they could. When the monitor engineer dropped, they brought out another guy - but then he had to be coached on the show."

"Fortunately," adds Lawson, "we always have a backup plan. Everyone involved has been around long enough that we can all fill in, if needed. But losing your core guy - that's unusual! This time, we went through plans A, B, and C pretty quickly."

Still, through a combination of skill, experience, and true grit, the production went off smoothly, earning a barrage of raves from HP executives, who found that the event set new standards for the company. According to Staging Solutions, HP employees attending another HP event across town pleaded for day passes from the Tech Forum badge holders so they could get a look at what was going on at Mandalay Bay. For its client, Staging Solutions has turned the idea of a corporate event on its head.