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UVLD Taste the Fruit of the Noni Tree

Lighting design partnership Unlimited Visibility Lighting Design helped Tahitian Noni International, the makers of Tahitian Noni Juice, to take over New York's Radio City Music Hall for a week long leadership meeting.

Each of the five major shows held during the week was different and featured a number of artists, production numbers, awards, and as a finale, the Radio City Rockettes. The shows were produced by Drury Design Dynamics with Adrian Hirsh as executive producer. The load-in began on Monday, and the first public performance took place just three days later. This equated to a tough few days for both the designers and the crew. Everyone involved realized that this series of shows constituted a lot of show, a lot of equipment and not a lot of time.

"Drury is a great client, and we are always thrilled when they bring us on board," remarks UVLD's Gregory Cohen, lighting designer for the event. "Our relationship is years old, so we are inevitably dialed into their creative style. Radio City Music Hall is also a fantastic venue. It's historic, huge and, above all, a theatre. A lot of our work is in ballrooms, being back in the theater was a great change. Almost everyone on the staff had seen a show there as a kid. The venue itself seemed to bestow on us all a responsibility to do our project really well."

Radio City Music Hall can be a tough working environment, with multiple prevailing union contracts to navigate. "It is one of UVLD's strengths that, as a team, we value the unions and respect our relationship with them," says Cohen. "We know how to work within the play book. To the client it means we can help predict costs and overages, and keep their expenses as low as possible. To be sure, no one is going to be surprised with how little they spend at a place like Radio City, but we hope to describe those costs accurately in advance."

With the size of the event fully in mind, Cohen assembled a team from both inside and outside of UVLD's ranks. Cohen's hands were completely full dealing with the design elements, so programming responsibility was delegated to UVLD's Cameron Yeary. The freelance members of the team were made up of Robert Cangemi, as Cohen's assistant lighting designer, Tom Blancato as production electrician and John Ellar as the moving light tech. With the exception of Yeary, the entire lighting team were all New York natives -- making the event at the music hall even more special.

The rig itself, supplied by Long Island-based Scharff Weisberg, Inc., consisted of 36 Martin MAC 2000 profile fixtures, 32 MAC 2000 wash fixtures, 30 MAC 2000 Performance fixtures and 17 Vari*Lite VL2000 profile fixtures. The rig was controlled by an MA Lighting grandMA console with a second console as back-up. "Scharff really helped us out on this show," noted Cohen. "Ben Saltzman, in particular, really looked after us and gave us a deal that meant we could have a show of which I think we are all rightly proud."

The difficult schedule and complex nature of the Tahitian Noni International event meant that tempers were sometimes short on all sides. "Drury and UVLD go back a long way ? we have a trusting relationship," smiles Cohen. "They knew we were going to get it all done even if we could not be all smiles at the front-of-house console. We work fast and take direction well, and they know when they are asking for the near-impossible. But we got it done, and it looked good because we had a great team."

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UVLD Taste the Fruit of the Noni Tree

5th April 2005

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