Tennis pros battle for years to make it to center court at the prestigious Arthur Ashe Stadium during the US Open Tennis Championships in Flushing Meadows, NY. Lighting designer Christien Methot, principal at design one in New York City, walked right onto center court armed with fixtures rather than rackets and aced his task of illuminating the opening ceremonies for the tennis tournament, as he has done for the past three years.
“We are setting up while the tennis stars are warming up, and the lighting crew loves it,” says Methot, who notes that, for many years, they never even turned off the stadium lights when big name stars sang the national anthem. Four years ago, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) decided to produce a true opening night event, after the French Open did video mapping for its event. “That was the deciding factor,” says Methot, who was brought in by the USTA, working with director Ray Roderick, Overland Entertainment, and Glow Design Group for the projection and video mapping. Audio Inc. provided the sound.
The first fully produced opening night ceremony was planned for September 2011, but weather got in the way, and in the throes of Hurricane Irene, the event, which was to have featured singer Taio Cruz, was cancelled. “We got the plot installed to 100% when they told us to take it down and get all the gear back in the truck,” Methot recalls. “We learned a lot from that exercise in the first year logistically but didn’t know if it would have worked creatively.”
That pushed the first full production to September 2012. Once again, Methot placed 8'x8' four-legged, free-standing squares of truss in 12 of the vom positions, with an engineer’s stamp of approval to withstand high winds. “We didn’t want to block sightlines and have since moved the truss back a bit to not obstruct any views,” he notes.
The show’s 20-minute format was planned to comprise an opening act at dusk, followed by speeches from tennis stars and mayors, a video such as Whoopi Goldberg on the Jumbotron pulling a switch to turn off the stadium lights, then two or three songs by the headliner, the singing of the national anthem, and some Grucci fireworks before the match. In 2012, Cruz was not available for a reprise of the cancelled 2011 show, but as Methot explains, “He gave us the right to use his music with the lighting and video, and even without a live act, there was a great response—a gasp from the audience and a sense of wow.” Jordan Sparks also performed a tribute to Whitney Houston, and there was major video mapping on the court, using eight Barco FLM-R22+ projectors with Dataton Watchout, which provided SMPTE timecode to the lighting rig. WorldStage supplied the gear that year. “The images wrapped the court from the south end, but it looked like they were coming from overhead,” Methot adds.
The lighting positions were primarily on ground-supported truss in the voms on the promenade level of the stadium, which Methot found to be “good positions to illuminate the audience and the court with a careful balance for television and the live audience,” as one of the goals is to make sure the USTA gets the footage it needs.
In 2013, the show had reached a point of maturity, with Lenny Kravitz wowing the crowd, while in 2014 the headliner was Fitz and The Tantrums, in a three-song, seven-minute medley. Methot worked with the lighting designer for each of these artists, keeping the wide shots for television in mind. Video content for the band was created by Tim LaValley of Battlecruiser Inc.
Each year, the rig has morphed a bit, as Methot also wants to “try something new in terms of technology.” The first year, he looked at a lot of automated fixtures with a shoot out of readily available gear. “We didn’t want a lot of heavy duty cable running everywhere,” he notes,adding that, of the fixtures they auditioned in 2012, they selected Coemar Infinity Wash XLs, High End Showguns and Showpix units, and Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures.
For the past two years, PRG has been the lighting supplier, allowing the addition of the PRG Bad Boy and Best Boy Spot fixtures, which Methot finds “perfect for the stadium application,” as well as PRG’s Series 400 Power and Data Distribution System. In 2013, Methot added Ayrton MagicPanel 602 fixtures behind Kravitz. This year marked the use of 24 of PRG’s new V-Move units that comprise Nocturne V-9 9mm video panels mounted on a moving yoke. “These were being used for Fitz and the band, and added a wider viewing angle, like deconstructed panels on a video wall,” notes the LD. They fed video through a PRG Mbox media server and PRG Nocturne processor, with overall control by a MA Lighting grandMA2 console. “It all worked seamlessly,” Methot adds.
In addition to the vom lighting positions, there were also eight vertical towers that came onto the court on rolling carts with special rubber wheels to protect the surface. While there was ample time to set up before the show, the strike had to happen in less than seven minutes. “We have 30 people to strike in time,” explains Methot, who is happy to report they did it in 6:05 this year with just one rehearsal.
“This year, there were three distinct layers to the lighting: the 12 vom positions, the gear on the court, and this year for the first time, 24 additional Sharpy units, one on each of 24 poles around the top of the stadium,” says Methot. To add atmosphere, 20 Ultratec Special Effects Radiance hazers were used, one in each of the voms, and the others on the court. The control booth for lighting and video was on the first story of a rooftop staging structure, where the projectors were located on the second floor, at the south end of the court. “They use water ballasts to keep the structure weighted and not move in the wind,” says Methot.
“This project has really pushed me to up my 3D presentation chops in terms of rendering and has pushed us as a team to be better and better each year,” he adds. “We enjoy working with Chris Widmaier of the USTA. He is involved enough to make a difference, yet trusts us to give him a great show. We can now look at three year’s worth of shows from ESPN to see what works and what doesn’t, with an eye to next year.” Tennis, anyone?