Its purpose is to "provide a 360° jumbo tron view above the poker table, just as you would find in any sport venue," said Justin Garrone of Innovative Show Design (ISD). Illuminated with bright LED lights, the structure features a wraparound row of EVLED Video Panels from Elation Professional to provide added special effects.
The truss structure is one of many innovative design and lighting concepts developed by ISD to add excitement to this 42-year-old competition.
The 2011 WSOP is a glossy production with over 700 lights on an all-new stage. Starting with Grudge Matches in June, the event returns at the beginning of July with the granddaddy of all poker tournaments, the world championship WSOP Main Event. Once the tournament field is narrowed down to nine players, competition stops before resuming in November for the final table. ESPN is televising the WSOP for the eighth straight year. Since some of the action takes place when ISD is off the set, many of the lights must continue to perform even when Garrone and his team aren't there to run them.
To achieve this combination of spectacular visual style, performance and reliability, Garrone's WSOP gear list consists in large part of LED products from Elation Professional. Among the Elation gear being used: 16 Platinum Wash LED Zoom; 40 Design Wash LED 60; 44 ELAR 108 Par RGBW; 14 ELED DW Par 56; 85 EVLED 1024 20mm LED Video Panel; 160' Flex LED Tape RGB; and 160' Flex LED Tape WW.
"When you're shooting TV, not only is the light output obviously important, but the look of the fixture is extremely important too," said Garrone. "Sometimes you see the lights on camera, so you don't want to have an unattractive-looking fixture. To me, all the Elation stuff is very good-looking. Not only do they do the job, they're also very sleek and camera-friendly."
(Jim Evans)
