It started when someone lit a few fireworks on top of the New York Times newly opened building between 7th Avenue and Broadway to mark the passage from 1904 to 1905. A couple of years later, they decided to lower a five-foot iron and wood sphere adorned with 100 x 25W light bulbs from the roof's flagpole at the stroke of midnight on 31 December. 

Before long, this simple NYE celebration in the area now known as "Times Square" went on to become a global tradition. There are many reasons why this annual rite of passage has held the world's imagination in its glittering grip for 120 years, not the least of which has been the way it's evolved with each new generation, while still holding on to tradition.

New Year’s Eve at Times Square continues to change. Earlier this year, all 2,688 pieces in the iconic crystal ball were replaced for the first time in a decade. Next year, more change! The entire 11,875-pound pound ball will be retired.

The spirit of change is also very much alive in Times Square at the wildly popular Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest. For the first time in its over 50-year history, the world famous NYE TV special will have an all IP rated lighting rig.

This is the result of The Lighting Design Group adding the Chauvet Professional COLORado Solo Bar 6, supplied by 4Wall Entertainment to its rig for the five-hour broadcast, which is watched by 18 million.

"Over the past handful of years, we've been slowly migrating our equipment to IP rated gear because of the sometimes terrible weather conditions that we deal with," said The Lighting Design Group's Mike Grabowski, project manager of the NYE broadcast lighting. “The Solo Bars join the other Chauvet IP units to complete the package.

"With the show being live all those hours straight, we have limited opportunities for swap outs," continued Grabowski. "I specifically do the broadcast stage, where the midnight countdown happens, as well as taking care of Ryan and his co-hosts as they run all over Times Square on the big night. There's a lot happening, so we don't want to have to worry about unreliable fixtures in the elements. This year was a prime example. We had rain during our set-up day, but we didn’t have to worry about putting out fixtures. Additionally, we had several pretty gnarly storms that soaked us right as we went live and well into the show."

Grabowski has good reason to be concerned about the elements. He has been working NYE shows in Times Square for almost 20 years and can only think of “maybe two years when the weather wasn't bad for at least part of it."

Weather concerns are often compounded by the tight setup schedule the production crew has in advance of the NYE show. "You can only shut down chunks of Times Square for so much time," said Grabowski. "We are in the shop to prep right after Christmas and then are out on site on the 28th. We try to get things set up on the 28th and 29th, allowing 30th for programming and rehearsal, but sometimes weather has a big say in that. We’ve had years where the 30th is projected to be absolutely awful weather, so rehearsals get pushed up and my team and I have to be nimble to roll with how things go."

As for the new COLORado Solo Bar 6 fixtures, Grabowski says the 24-cell linear fixtures play a key role in the NYE broadcast, specifically in creating a bright, colourful backdrop. The 1768 x 200 x 212.4mm fixtures also help focus attention on the on-air talent by blocking out distractive backgrounds.

"We have about a dozen of the COLORado Solo Bar 6, landing right in that big background that you see as you watch Ryan and guests have the countdown to midnight," note Grabowski.  "It’s a funny thing, all of the lights we use are there for adding to the beauty and the aesthetic but the density of them is really to hide a lot as well.

"Our platform is about 12-feet in the air," he continued. "This means we have pretty extensive railings. Even if they’re pristine, these railings are not terribly interesting to look at. Add to that there are egress lanes left in the middle of Times Square for emergency responders and the production crew, and it can get pretty bland looking. We want to show the energy and the vibe of the event, not gaps in the crowd and streetlights. It’s a little visual sleight of hand to help the mayhem of energy translate to the viewer at home."

The COLORado Solo Bar 6 units are not the only Chauvet Professional fixtures contributing to the aesthetics of the broadcast. The rig also features a generous amount of Maverick Storm 4 Profile and Color Strike M fixtures among others all supplied by 4Wall, led on site by Drew DeCorleto and Tara France.

"The Maverick and Color Strike fixtures are doing a wide range of things," said Grabowski. "They are covering railing, hiding and masking. Why put up tape and black fabric, when we can add to the energy with these fixtures! The Storm 4s are just big old beasties in terms of output. That’s the other end of things, we have a helicopter shot covering our show, so not only do we need the small picture to look bold and dynamic, but the entire overview as well. Storm 4s hit the mark for that.

"Having these fixtures has definitely made life easier for me and my very wonderful team: veterans Joey Cartagena and Paul Braile, along with newcomers Sam Short, Jeremy Dominik and Nyle Farmer not to mention programmers Ryan Philip and Cypress Staelin," added Grabowski.

Sarah Jakubasz, a well-established lighting designer and Grabowski’s longtime collaborator and member of the NYE show team, who was instrumental in converting the NYE rig to all IP65 rated, could not see the completion of her vision as she passed away last year.

"Sarah set me down this path of slowly getting this rig to an IP rated place with quality fixtures," said Grabowski. "She was the one who, when we discussed going IP rated, pointed out that it wasn’t just the waterproof aspect of the IP rating that mattered so much, but also the temperature rating. There are some IP rated fixtures that are fine in rain, but we also deal with temperatures well below freezing and for extended periods.

"As we discussed it, 'heat sink' rapidly becomes 'cold sink.' and once you push a fixture below its operating threshold, it takes a long, long time for it to recover. Because of her insight, we’ve taken our time to migrate everything over to IP rated. We want new and pretty and interesting but we also need it to work in what is sometimes fairly adverse conditions. Now we have all of this Chauvet Professional IP gear out, not just in wet conditions but also frigid conditions and it’s all been pretty bulletproof."

Article Sourced by ET: NOW, Entertainment News on the Web