Red Rocket has produced the annual national meeting of Siemens Healthcare sales and service teams for more than a decade. These events feature business-oriented general sessions and two awards galas in the same ballroom. This year there were 2,600 attendees.
Our challenge from Siemens: “Motivate and inspire the organization to be customer-facing. Facilitate team building. Reinforce personal accountability.” We translated “customer-facing” into our design and personalized a call to action. We used Siemens employees as our only performers in order to engage the audience and give them ownership of the theme.
The Audience Experience
Attendees entered a ballroom transformed to a theater in the round, with tiered seating. They faced both rotating and fixed stages. Front and center, on a 30’-diameter LED screen, we introduced the personal challenge at the heart of the meeting: Are You Ready to Get ©entered?
The show opened with our flown circular LED display lowered on stage. As animated computer images transitioned across the screen, we moved from metaphors for “the center” to world images accompanied by voiceovers of competitive messages. Computer-generated visuals gave way to a video of employee representatives sharing personal stories about how they "get centered" on their customer. The video closed with an animation of the room and stage that morphed into the main stage area. At center stage, the LED structure rose, and a rotating stage revealing the company's executive team, introduced by a pre-recorded VO. The CEO stepped forward to welcome the audience, backed by his team. Perimeter screens displayed I-Mag of the executives, the CEO and show graphics.
How We Did It
Animation was designed in different resolutions for the flown and stage-surround LED displays. For animation to appear and wrap around the LED circular display, it was created at 2,256x 205 pixels. A 24’ stage fascia supported a single row of LED tiles. The 11mm tiles were built into a 30’-diameter, 9’-high display structure and a 32’-diameter, 18”-high stage surround. Two Catalyst media servers were in line and synced to play content seamlessly. We also incorporated picture-in-picture windows on the LED display to improve the I-Mag and graphic viewing angle for the audience. Four outer screens mirrored the LED display or displayed separate content.
During both awards banquets, graphics with winner's names and accomplishments displayed on perimeter screens while their names scrolled across the LED display. Three cameras on dollies, one used as a steadi-cam, covered all angles during the awards banquets.
Creative Team
Rob Jones, Executive Producer
Jeff Campese, Creative Director
Tom Bollard, Technical Director
Tom McCarthy, Art Director
Jimmy Huckaby, Video Director
Curtis Sponsler, 3D Animation
Luis Montalvo, Lighting Designer
Joe Turiczek, Audio Designer
Equipment
450F-LED 11mm LED tiles
6 GLP Volslicht Zoom LED
10 ETC Source Four Ellipsoidal
2 ETC Source Four PAR
2 MA Lighting grandMA console
2 Catalyst Media Server
Encore Switcher
Sony DFS-700 Camera Switcher
2 Apple Mac Playback Pro
2 AJA KiPro Digital Disc Recorder
8 Barco FLM HD20 Projectors
Yamaha M-7CL-48 Console
32 JBL VRX 932 Line Array Speaker
6 JBL Vertec 4880 Sub
12 JBL VRX 928
In Motion 3D Cyberhoist
Truss 850’, 20”, 12”
56 ½-ton motors