Alarm.com, makers of home security and technology products, hosts an annual summit that brings together their partner companies for a sales, marketing, and appreciation event in Washington, DC. For one evening of their summit, they welcome their guests to private ringside seating featuring professional boxing and Muay Thai fights arranged by our friends at Cagezilla.
The kicker? This huge event takes place in the same meeting room as the rest of the summit, giving us just 6 hours to completely transform the room from classroom seating to an in-the-round boxing showcase.
Our trucks arrive at the Mayflower hotel just ahead of schedule, with our staff standing by to assist the housemen with a speedy removal of tables and chairs. Once the floor is cleared, our cases start rolling in: dozens of boxes of speakers, moving lights, projectors, and control systems, all ready to be assembled by our team. Some systems have been pre-assembled, such as totems loaded with moving lights, which roll off the truck as units, needing just data cable and a final light on top. Light plots are handed around, assignments are made, and our staff is broken into groups, each focusing on sound, lighting, or video.
Within a few hours the truss grid is raised, and projector and lighting focus can begin. Media is loaded into playback systems – a mixture of videos, stills, and graphics prepared by both our studio team and Alarm.com’s in-house graphics designers. Audio mixes are built – different feeds for the audience, the recording, and the ring announcer’s in-ear monitors. Every inch of the room is packed with tables, chairs, lighting, projection, and speakers. In fact, the production spills out in to the hallway, where a truss system splashes color and custom gobos around the entrance to the event.
This event was the first use of our new moving lights inventory – a great opportunity to check out our Chauvet R2 LED wash fixtures and RH1 hybrid spot/beam/wash heads. Because of the limited load in schedule, we spent a lot of time preparing detailed paperwork and pre-programming the lighting system in our visualizer. These fixtures really proved themselves here, and we can’t wait to deploy them to new events.
As soon as the event is over, the process is reversed. Tables are cleared, and the central system with its video cube, moving lights, and ring lighting comes down. Three hours later, truck doors are locked and our staff heads back to Richmond, leaving the Mayflower clean and ready to reset for morning meetings. It’s a challenging and fast-paced but fun event, and it gave us a smile when a guest walked in mid-day to find his missing bag, asking, “Ummm, is this the same room we were in this morning?”
- 8 Chauvet RH1 hybrid
- 12 Chauvet R2 wash
- 10 Elation Platinum Beam 5r
- 24 Elation DW60 wash
- 10 Chauvet Intimidator 375
- 12 Source4 ellipsoidals
- 4 QSC K12
- 2 QSC KW181
- 4 Shure QLX wireless mics
- Midas M32 mixer
- 4 6×10 projection screens
- 2 long-throw projectors
- 2 ultra short-throw projectors
- 2 manned JVC cameras at ringside
- 1 Newtek Tricaster TC1