d3 Media Servers Visualize Country’s Biggest Night
Joe Kleiman
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: (L-R) Musicians Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, Karen Fairchild and Phillip Sweet of Little Big Town perform onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for dcp)
London, UK (June 23, 2015) – When the 50th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, from Dick Clark Productions, aired live on CBS, five 4x4pro media servers from d3 Technologies were on hand to drive all the screens for the show. Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan returned to host the ACM Awards from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It set a Guinness world record for live award show attendance with just under 80,000 people in the audience.
“It was a massive production,” notes media programmer Jason Rudolph. “There were 24 outputs, including LED and projection on and off stage. One large 5mm screen was the width of the end zone.”
He deployed five 4x4pros supplied by VER through Rudolph’s Mobius Productions. “We needed d3 systems for the number of outputs required,” he says. “In addition, we were able to set up some mapping that let me cover all the screens; I set up a single contiguous image. We could use that to punt. Then, if any last minute changes or programming came up, I could put up a clip that would cover the whole screen. d3’s parallel mapping feature is great for times like that .”
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: (L-R) Musicians Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, Karen Fairchild and Phillip Sweet of Little Big Town perform onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for dcp)
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: Singer-songwriter Cole Swindell performs onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images for dcp)
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: Honorees Ronnie Dunn (L) and Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn perform onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for dcp)
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: Honorees Kix Brooks (L) and Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn perform onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images for dcp)
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: Recording artist Nick Jonas (C) performs with Dan Smyers (L) and Shay Mooney (R) of Dan + Shay onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images for dcp)
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: Honoree Garth Brooks (center) onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for dcp)
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: (L-R) Musicians Hillary Scott, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum perform onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for dcp)
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: Musician Blake Shelton (center) performs onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for dcp)
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: Recording artist Hunter Hayes (L) and NFL player Jason Witten speak onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images for dcp)
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 19: Host Luke Bryan accepts the Entertainer of the Year Award onstage during the 50th Academy Of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images for dcp)
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He notes that all of the programming was done during the show. “d3 made it easy to program on the spot,” Rudolph says. “Once I got it set up it worked really smoothly.”
He also used SockPuppet, which enables users to tap all d3’s mapping, playback and projection features while using their preferred control surface, including most lighting consoles. “Everything was controlled using SockPuppet and timecode for the entire show,” he says. “That worked out really well.” Rudolph had previously used SockPuppet for the Super Bowl and a New Year’s show. “The team at d3 always provide fantastic support, and the platform has proven to be a reliable performer for me”
Joseph Denham served as Rudolph’s technician on the awards; Raj Kapoor was the creative producer and handled most of the content for the show. The Norm Levin Company provided screens.
