When WorldStage hosted its Annual Summer Client Event the company made use of the extensive creative and technical capabilities it normally reserves for customers. Billed as a sophisticated evening of food and cocktails with a media exhibition, the event at the Metropolitan Pavilion introduced the new WorldStage brand for Scharff Weisberg and Video Applications, Inc. and showcased the company's latest equipment acquisitions in a very unique way.
The event space, bathed in blue and purple light and exuding a cool vibe that contrasted with the hot summer night outside, featured a portrait-mode display of Barco C5 LED tiles, 3D projection mapping, a fun custom interactive "emotion controller" and an exciting menu of molecular gastronomy, where food science met culinary artistry.
"While we've done one or two technology-based events every year, this one was more about celebrating our clients and the designers who support them," says WorldStage president Josh Weisberg. "The celebration included incredible, sophisticated food and cocktails as well as great music. Of course, we had to include at least a little new technology, so we showed off our new Barco C5 LED video tiles plus a beautiful projection mapping piece and an interactive emotion controller. It was great to see our clients and staff interacting at the party and having a fun time."
"The evening was all about new ideas, new technology, new food - and the new WorldStage," says WorldStage design director Shelly Sabel who designed the party with Josh Weisberg. "Metropolitan Pavilion, where we have been the in-house AV company for many years, is an awesome event space, and we concentrated on giving it a new look, too."
She gave the room a dark, sexy, club look creating an environment where guests felt comfortable hanging out, listening to music and just having fun. "Since we're a media company we made a deliberate choice not to hide anything," she says. "We didn't screen off any of the gear with curtains. We let guests get up close and personal with the equipment looking at the beautiful back of the Barco LED tiles and the wonderful lighting fixtures. It was all about being able to touch things."
The party also featured video content submitted by a number of media designers that work with WorldStage. The media exhibition included some stunning conventional flat-screen video as well as a projection mapped piece submitted by Integrated Visions .
One of the technical highlights was the new super-sharp Barco C5 5.5mm pixel pitch, black-face indoor LED display that displayed stunning graphical content from a number of clients and designers. Just for fun, a custom interactive "emotion controller" changed the color palette and textures of projections as guests moved a slider to the words "jealousy," "lust," "envy," "bliss" and "grunge" as fit their moods. The interactive touchscreen from PQ Labs controlled the new "particle generation" feature included in the latest Coolux Pandoras Box media server.
WorldStage also showed off its latest lighting fixtures, including wireless Astera LED PARs, Martin Mac Aura LEDs, VARI*LITE VLX LEDs, Clay Paky Sharpys, and Color Force LED strip lights, which illuminated the DJ booth.
Sabel collaborated with Sterling Affair Caterers on the molecular gastronomy menu whose creative presentations included pina colada floating islands glowing under black light and dry-ice smoke; translucent olive oil chips against a black light background; and grilled vegetable and mozzarella brochettes presented beneath glass votives filled with rosemary smoke.
A Jello mold champion - yes, there are Jello mold competitions - Sabel prepared her own special glow-in-the-dark Jello for guests.
"Sterling gave us so many menu options," Sabel reports. "They were as excited about the party as we were and were just delightful to work with."
Sabel notes that "Josh (Weisberg) wanted the party to be an appreciation of our clients on a midweek night during a very hot summer. People in this business work hard and play hard. This event was playful and fun with really, really good food!"
WorldStage Inc., the company created by the merger of Scharff Weisberg Inc and Video Applications Inc, continues a thirty-year legacy of providing clients the widest variety of entertainment technology coupled with conscientious and imaginative engineering services. WorldStage provides audio, video and lighting equipment and services to the event, theatrical, broadcast and brand experience markets nationally and internationally.