Atlas Production Group was awarded the bid and got to work immediately conducting planning meetings with CHAT representatives and local digital artist Bill Seaman. The “vision” was to feature Seaman’s images as a projection on two sides of Nasher Museum of Art– covering the entire building – as well as on a smaller building that stands adjacent to the museum on opening night.

Knowing that winter weather in the southeast is very unpredictable, the Atlas team designed every aspect of the outdoor projection knowing it could be rainy and cold or it could be dry and mild on that night.

The two sides of the Nasher Museum of Art provided a huge blank canvas 120 feet wide by 32 feet tall. This area was much too large for one projector to cover. The Atlas team decided upon the use of three Christie Roadster HD 18K Digital (18,000 lumen) projectors – which offer exceptional image quality and detail for pure presentation. With a technique called edge blending, they projected three images with overlapping pixels at the edges to cover the two buildings walls.

If the building areas had been flat – that would have been all that was needed. However, the architectural design of the building, and one large awning, and needing to include the second building presented additional challenges for the projection. The Atlas team applied their expertise and implemented warping and masking techniques for the images. For example, masking allowed them to notch out portions of the video where the awning hangs so no images were projected onto the awning.
Once all projections were brought into the right exposure – two sides of the museum and the smaller building were 100% covered and the results – spectacular! Some guests were overheard saying “inspirational!”

Other production equipment used for this event included 20 foot scaffolding that housed the projectors, cabling distribution and GOBO lighting to project the CHAT Festivals’ logo – further branding the event.

Opening night indeed dealt rainy, wintertime weather. And Atlas Production Group was fully prepared. Our production team overcame all technical and weather related challenges, and opening night of the second annual Collaboration: Humanities, Arts and Technology festival was a huge success.

It is always nice to hear from our clients post-event.

Here is a nice testimonial from Todd Berreth, who works as a research scientist in the programming arts at Duke, “Thank you to Atlas Production Group – I was impressed by your efforts and professionalism throughout this entire project.”

Atlas Production Group is proud to have been involved in the production of the Human Rights Campaign Carolinas Gala held in Charlotte, NC February 25, 2012.   For ten consecutive years, Atlas Production Group has helped set the stage for many local and national personalities involved with furthering their fight for equality.  2012 is no different.

Let’s paint a picture.

Picture the Charlotte Convention Center on event night.  Now, add in the 1400 guests who have paid for a premium ticket and have filled the floor seating areas.  First on stage was the Mayor of Charlotte, Anthony Foxx, who delivered a powerful speech to those guests.   Now picture a female rock star who served as the entertainment for this same event.  Quite a variety of personalities under one roof, isn’t it?

Dynamic events such as the HRC Carolinas Gala must be able to go off without a hitch.  In order to make this night perfect for guests and sponsors alike, Atlas Production Group brought in a triple play of the best audio, video and lighting equipment available.

We recognize that while the format of the event is similar year after year, the venue changes often so that creates new challenges.  Also, the HRC Gala theme is different every year, raising the bar of creativity needed to present the same event as “brand new.”

Let’s step back into the planning phase.  What exactly did the client request in our initial December planning session?

Client Request 1. HRC wanted to be sure to prominently display the logos of their event sponsors.  Our answer was to bring in GOBO projection lights and utilize otherwise blank wall space for their constant display.

Client Request 2. Ensure proper audio for keynote speaker Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Human Health Services.  America’s top health official was heard clearly and comfortably over a mixture of Nexo Cabinets and the world’s leading loudspeakers, d&b audiotechnik Line Array audio equipment.

Client Request 3. Ensure proper audio and lighting for HRC’s entertainment for the evening, The Voice’s Beverly McClellan.  The scrappy rocker who made an improbable run to the final round on The Voice was able to perform under mighty concert/theatre style lighting; including Vari-Lite spot and wash fixtures and Chroma-Q LED cyc fixtures.

Client Request 4. Great video.  HRC typically shows a lot of video clips during their events – and this was no exception.  Atlas Production Group provided four 6,000 lumen and three, 10,000 lumen Panasonic projectors to seamlessly present multiple video shows throughout the night.

“This event was action packed from beginning to end,” explains Michael Pryal, Atlas Production group team leader for this project.   “It was important to get everything flown in the room because floor space was limited due to a high guest count.  Visually the screens and lights all needed to be at the proper angles from above to accommodate the large number of guests and variety of speakers/performers on stage.”

In addition to the equipment mentioned above, we used several hundred feet of truss and 18 chain motors to complete the job.

So how did we do?

This just in from our client, Richard Gagliano, Sr. Event Manager with the Washington DC-based HRC:  “We continue to be very happy with Atlas Production Group.  We have relied on them for 10 years and have never been disappointed.  Their professionalism and creativity bring our events to life.”

“We are always excited to provide services for such high profile events,” said Garth Saunders, Vice President of Atlas Production Group. “The office of the Vice President needed to rent audio equipment, but also needed a sound engineer and lighting director to provide their expertise.”

Atlas Production has experience in the political arena, having provided audio and visual equipment services for presidential candidate Barack Obama and again providing services for President Obama twice in 2009. They have worked for four different presidential campaigns in the last six years. Atlas excels in staging corporate events and providing lighting, audio, visual, and event production services at a corporate event or special function. The Atlas corporate office is located in Raleigh, North Carolina and has provided services from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta, Georgia.