Press Release

design one corporation tapped new and innovative technologies to add a real ‘Wow!’ factor to Heineken’s national sales meeting in San Antonio for 2,500 distributors. design one demonstrated its full-service capabilities by providing lighting, set design and project management for the gathering.
Armonk NY-based Everett Studios were producers on the event, and returned to Curtis Dunn, who had collaborated with Everett on previous Heineken meetings, to steer the team in taking the initial concept and Heineken’s traditionally conservative use of technology to the next level. “They wanted to go all out,” notes Dunn, who recently joined forces with design one as a full-time member of the creative staff. “We sat down with the Everett team to find technologies that would underscore the message they wanted to convey.”
The event was four days in length and included all Heineken employees as well as all the distributors from around the country. Reviews from headquarters in Holland indicate it was the best meeting ever held. “Working with the design one guys is like working with mind readers, and that's why we use them again and again. This year was the hardest and the best yet. They're all like Houdinis,” commented Everett Studios’ Robbie Everett.
The project incorporated many leading-edge solutions, including the Jands Vista lighting console; Martin MAC 2000 lighting fixtures; water curtains used as projection surfaces, lasers and pyrotechnics supplied by Excitement Technologies Group of Carrolton TX; a Martin Audio compact line array; and ESP-Vision lighting visualization software.
“We saw a demo of the Jands Vista lighting console and were blown away by it,” says design one president Christien Methot. Capabilities of the gear were brought to bear by programmer Laura Frank and associate lighting designer Tim Plummer. “We were venturing into new ground with this technology and I wanted to support Curtis with top grade people – solid talent and solid skills,” adds Methot.
“Vista is a strong visual base that anyone on the design team can communicate with,” states Laura Frank. “Everyone can paint and create with it. I’m very excited about its potential for future use.”
Also key to the live event was ESP-Vision lighting visualization software, which permits a 3D preview of the sets and lighting scheme so lighting can be plotted and manipulated in real time from a DMX console. “It’s a groundbreaking piece of software,” Methot reports. “Once it gets plugged in you have the ability to get a good chunk of the show programmed off site. It stands out in its ability to realistically represent exactly how a light will look hitting a certain kind of surface. You can adjust haze effects and rotate perspective, allowing you to view the show from several different points in the house as well as from the viewpoint of the presenter ‘ which is a huge timesaver for us.”
“We spent a day in the office setting up looks in Vista using ESP-Vision; it’s a great way to prep for limited onsite work time,” says Laura Frank. “It provided us with an environment that really emulated the show and enabled us to elevate speaker support to a performance level. All I had to do was touch it up on site and it was flawless.”
Everett Studios’ projection package featured Dataton WATCHOUT a software application for formatting and running seamless, multi-projection presentations. Images were displayed across five screens measuring a total of 1500 square feet. The central rear-projection screen was flanked by two water screens from Excitement Technologies Group, which were then flanked by two additional front-projection screens in the house; images such as kinetically-rotating bottles and logos exploded from the center screen onto the water surfaces. Images also expanded from one screen across all five with the center screen changing its physical dimensions from straight 4:3 to 16:9 depending on the scenic treatment for each brand. “The audience had the experience of four truly unique scenic settings. With the creative input of Chris Jones, our scenic designer, and the incredible capabilities of WATCHOUT and the Vista Spider video switcher, we were able to effect a different screen look and aspect for each brand,” said Dunn.
design one incorporated an extensive lighting complement, including Martin MAC 2000 Wash and Profile lights, High End Cyberlight Turbos, ChromaQ Color Blocks, ETC Source Fours, and Apollo color mixing scrollers.
The company brought lighting designer Tim Plummer on board for the event. “The first hour of the show was a traditional presentation with speakers. But when we got into the brand presentations, we had a chance to ramp things up to reinforce the branding; from a comical Mexican bus for Tecate and Bohemia, to a tasteful candlelit dinner in Amstel’s upscale “gallery” setting, to Heineken’s surprise Green Machine which had a ‘Matrix’ and ‘Minority Report’ kind of feel. After each brand family was presented we did a total scenery change. Between Amstel and Heineken there was an intermission where the audience returned to a greatly changed room, filled with haze, the walls pulsating green with moving textures. A sci-fi style logo and countdown were displayed on the screens with supporting audio. When the count got to 10 seconds lights swept through the house, we went to black and the impact video started to run. Each vertical truss warmer lighted up in a rapid domino succession, a pyro blast blinded the audience, and Andy, the Heineken Brand Director was revealed as the smoke cleared.”
Adding to the building excitement on stage were green lasers and two full-color RGB mixing lasers featuring different brand-specific identities like bottle caps, labels, and themes pulled from the scenic design. ETG’s cryojets supplied blasts of liquid nitrogen to give an industrial feel.
Plummer used ESP-Vision to write cues in design one’s office several days in advance of the show. “The system proved to be very accurate: I didn’t have to do a lot of tweaking of the cues on site,” he notes.
Dunn also praises the Martin Audio line arrays used on the project. “Our audio engineers Kelly Duncan and Justin Herminghouse did a remarkable job, and the Martin Audio compact line arrays were a critical component that really blew the room away. It gave us pinpoint accuracy and incredible sound. It was key to the Heineken brand presentation.”
Andy Glaser, Brand Director for Heineken was thrilled, noting that the show received nothing but positive feedback and recognizing design one’s Curtis Dunn as making the final show performance flawless.
design one corporation is a full service lighting design firm. Their objective is to provide the highest level of accuracy, dedication and creativity for it clients. They are on the job from start to finish and can provide design, installation, sales and programming services. For more information on design one corporation, call 212-477-5662 or visit their web site at www.d1ny.com