Photo by Suzanne Teresa.
Haymon Boxing created Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), which debuted at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in March with production design by Bruce Rodgers of Tribe, Inc., who was first contacted by Michael Marto, president of Executive Visions Inc., to help Haymon Boxing reimagine the look of professional boxing, and to bring the sport back to primetime television. “Along with the talented lighting designer John Featherstone of Lightswitch, technical producer Mario Educate of OSA, rigger Bill Spoon, designer/builder Erik Eastland of All Access Staging & Productions, executive producer Michael Marto, and my design team at Tribe inc., our core group went about finding a tourable design that would provide a signature look to the new world of boxing,” says Rodgers. Read about the beginning stages of the process in Part One.
Featherstone also uses 39 Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures, 194 Chauvet Professional Colorado 1-Quad Tour PARs, and 12 Kino Flo Tegra 4Bank DMX units, with Lee Filters colors specified for the followspots. Control is via an MA Lighting grandMA2 console, and Upstaging supplied the lighting package. Austin Shapley was the assistant lighting designer, with programming done by Mike Robertson. The production electrician/console operator is Dave Zuckerman, and the lighting crew includes Ken Burns, Jr., Brian Kasten, Josh Wagner, and Devon Zuckerman.
The video surfaces total seven LED walls comprising 576 Absen C7 7mm LED tiles and 805 Absen A3 Pro 3.9mm LED tiles, and Rodgers says the content is a major part of the design. “Each network provided its specific brand content with a few common PBC brand graphics that tie the look of the tour from network to network, and each graphic package has been unique and high quality,” says Rodgers, whose team at Tribe working on this project included set designer and illustrator Evan Alexander, CGI artists Amber Stinebrink and Lucas Martell, and art directors Lindsey Breslauer and Floyd Rodgers.
Photo by Suzanne Teresa.
The 80'-diameter Ring of Honor sits 68' above the show floor and uses 456 C7 tiles, fed from backstage by three NovaStar MCTRL660 video processors connected to the ring via two 1,000' Gepco TAC-12 fiber cables. The content is split into two 180º sections, each 4,560 pixels wide by 320 pixels high, with a total resolution of 9,120x320. The scoreboard uses the A3 tiles, with a resolution of 1,920x1,024 per side. The Wall of Thunder is actually three individual walls at house-left, house-right, and center, each comprising A3 9mm tiles and fed via an individual video signal generated from custom playback servers.
Controlling the video are several complex systems, including the custom-built setup of four rack-mounted Apple Mac Minis running OSA proprietary playback software that works in tandem with a Vizrt content management and control system designed by Reality Check Systems. Each server outputs to its own AJA ROI Mini-Converter that splits the signal into HD-SDI for broadcast truck return and DVI for the in-house LED walls. The Vizrt server runs the majority of the show, allowing for realtime input of fighter stats and other up-to-the-minute information. An Avitech Rainier 3G Plus multi-viewer provides local video monitoring.
All of the playback server outputs are routed through a Lightware 64x64 DVI router and a Sierra Ponderosa 64x64 3G HD-SDI router that eventually lead to a Vista Spyder X20 that can create presets for each screen and switch sources to each screen seamlessly. The production also uses two BlackMagic Design ATEM 2 M/E Switchers with an ATEM 1 M/E Console for sub-switching program feeds and EVS feeds. Finally are 11 networked Barco ImagePro II JRs connected to a high-power, dual-band wireless router, through which an Apple iPad or iPhone can connect remotely via an encrypted network. The OSA international crew includes Angel Banchs, Mat Covell, Scott DeLancey, Skip Hutton, Todd Kramer, and Luis Muchuca.
Hallmark Look Makes Impact
Photo by Suzanne Teresa.
The parameters of the regulation size of the ring and the timing of the rounds also helped to shape the design. “During the in-between rounds and fights, our design comes to life with informative content and inspiring music, but everything comes to a hushed arena-sized focus with the start of each round of boxing, which is a great rush of excitement in and out of each bout,” says Rodgers.
Featherstone and his team did extensive previsualization at Prelite, allowing everyone from the executive producer level down, to “all get in the sand box and decide on lighting cues, camera angles, and a multitude of other show elements before and during the install of the first production at the MGM in Las Vegas,” he says, adding that it saved time, eliminated headaches, allowed validation of concepts, and made for a smooth onsite process. “Michael Marto was an enthusiastic early adopter of previsualization years ago and really understands the value it brings to projects,” the lighting designer adds. “As new elements were added to the design, they became opportunities to integrate them into the overall aesthetic vocabulary. For example, PBC added a groundbreaking 360 cam—kind of like the sweeping, circular effects pioneered with The Matrix—that needed a circle of camera positions on a truss around the ring. So rather than making this an afterthought, it was integrated into the design. Bruce designed and All Access constructed a bespoke, custom truss structure with linear LED lighting integrated into it, and we programmed it into the show, and it has become part of our hallmark look.”
Previz rendering
And that hallmark look is helping PCB make an impact. The premier event, in which Keith Thurman defeated Robert Guerrero, brought in huge ratings, with viewership of 4.2 million, the most watched fight broadcast since 1998. “The epic soundscape, helped by audio designer Carmen Educate, the illuminated environment, staging, and visuals combine to raise the emotional state of the viewing TV audience, existing and new boxing fans,” says Rodgers. “The look of the production—from the custom fighters’ red and blue warm up rooms, to the introduction and stats main stage, to the sports desk for legendary announcers Al Michaels and Sugar Ray Leonard, to the new boxing ring and fighters’ corners, and the overhead hero piece, Ring of Honor—every detail was designed to support and enhance the energy of two boxers battling strategically in a controlled environment surrounded by intense and loyal fans. It’s being called a success, which we’re proud of, but more importantly to me, the tour and the quality of the broadcast is helping bring back a great sport based on technique, athletic skills, and sportsmanship.”
Featherstone adds that the experience working with Rodgers and his team at Tribe is always one of true collaboration, and he cites the “‘no bad source for a good idea’ philosophy they have; it truly is a delight. So by working with Bruce and Erik Eastland and the crew at All Access, it is really hard to tell where one department ends and another begins, which, to me, is the essence of a great design process. We were challenged by Michael Marto and PBC to create a grand vista with a single purpose: to connect the audience to the two gladiators in the ring in ways never before experienced. We believe we have conceived an experience unlike anything ever before seen in the sport of boxing. Come see a fight near you. You won’t regret it!”