New York illuminates its first outdoor concert after the pandemic with Elation

New York City brought together its inhabitants for the first major concert after the pandemic. ‘We Love NYC’ It has been the return of the city and a reunion with great music stars, that was illuminated with the systems of Elation.

The New Yorker Central Park has been the setting chosen to celebrate We Love NYC: the homecoming concert, the first big open-air concert and 'the return of the city’ to these events after the pandemic, in which artists known all over the world have participated and have met again on this stage.

Organized at the end of last month by NYC, in collaboration with music producer Clive Davis and Live Nation, the show offered a medley of genres, from LL Cool J until Barry Manilow.

The concert, about five hours long and that was going to be headed by Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Patti Smith y Elvis Costello, inter alia, had to be cut short by just over half due to thunderstorms related to the hurricane Henri.

Even so, artists like Jennifer Hudson, Carlos Santana, LL Cool J, Andrea Bocelli, Earth Wind & Fire, Kane Brown, Journey y Barry Manilow, inter alia, they were able to go on stage.

Despite the time, The show was a great success that brought together more than 60.000 personas, vaccinated and complying with health measures, who celebrated the return to live music in New York.

This is what he says Tom Kenny, hired by Diversified Productions Services (DPS) to design the lighting for the show: “It has been a good example of how a large live event can be organized safely”.

Power and IP protection

Kenny collaborated with renowned production designer Bruce Rodgers to plan the means of this large open stage, which featured numerous automated lighting systems and huge New York letters on the front.

“We only had one hour of darkness, so you had to look big and spectacular during the day, but we didn't want to depend on too many gags -Kenny explains., so powerful lighting was essential. However, Our biggest concern was the exposed light fixtures and, being outdoors, with the highest possible IP65”.

The abundance of lumens and IP protection against weather changes characterize the Proteus line from Elation, chosen for this event. The team, supplied by 4Wall Entertainment, included 80 Proteus Hybrid; 20 Proteus Maximus; 35 Proteus Lucius y 16 DTW Blinders 700 IP.

To this deployment of Elation systems are also added 60 Smarty Max y 18 Cuepix Blinder WW2, as well as other luminaires. “When you do these big shows, You are looking for power and something that is very reliable, and we were very lucky with all the luminaires we chose”, Kenny assures.”

Base and custom lighting

Although I had already used the Proteus luminaires, This designer highlights that the show far exceeded everything. “We start by creating a large look general, before customizing it for each song. Patti Smith, For example, He told us to paint a picture and let it dry., what works for her, but for other artists we paint a picture and move on”.

The design team also had to make sure that both the base lighting and customizations for each artist worked for the camera., as the show was broadcast live to a global audience in the CNN.

The great esplanade of Central Park has the particularity that it lacks a central tower position, so Kenny had to settle for two full-backs: “I always set a lighting safety wash, so we did it from both sides using Maximus luminaires. We were very impressed with the reach, which was more than 60 metros, and the lumen level was still good, like the color, power and shape”.

Color, power, shape

Any IP fixture that the designer knew could withstand the rain was placed at the back of the stage., and that included the Proteus Lucius units, from the Maximus compact range, which Kenny used to illuminate both the people and the environment of Central Park.

Regarding Proteus Hybrid, “They were located in four towers around the park and we ended up illuminating all the foliage with them from about 91 metros, which was quite nice”. For your part, Smarty Max hybrid moving heads (of 21.000 lumens) functioned as show and working lights from a grille on the rear wall.

The climate was the main challenge of the celebration, with the arrival of the hurricane Henri to New York, which was accompanied by torrents of rain that ended up falling on the platform: the largest amount recorded in the park in a single hour.

“All the IP65 lights survived -Kenny remembers-. Even after the show was canceled, we kept the lights on for safety. Its reliability and operation really impressed us all.”.