The very first Sama-Sama Live Experience was
held at the Madrid Arena in late 2015. It was developed by Roy Offer in
conjunction with Cirque du Soleil that combines elements from live shows, theme
parks and interactive events.
Sama-Sama is a unique type of entertainment, showcasing the ability and
creativity of its participants, merging the spectator and performer into one.
The idea is that using the variety of technology available people can create
their own entertainment in the space around them. The space used is a
mixture of a dance studio, rhythm gaming, green screen and motion tracking
technology as well as a stage.
Eli Cochavi, Eran Klein and Omer Israeli from
expert lighting design team, Cochavi & Klein used wysiwyg lighting design and previsualization software to programme an
incredible volume and complexity of lighting, video and control for each
experience area working with key stakeholders, artists, collaborators and
technology vendors.
“Each experience had to be fully programmed with
lights, sound, automation, performers, stage sets and video. As well as
designing the show we also had to programme the technology elements including
cable runs and network infrastructure. We used the great benefits of wysiwyg previz software to accurately represent how each area would work,” said
Eli Cochavi, CEO at Cochavi & Klein.
Cochavi & Klein used a lot of custom and
existing virtual lighting fixtures contained within wysiwyg’s library. “We worked with CAST library manager to create many new
lighting fixtures. In total, the set had over 2,000 lighting fixtures and was
connected to 22 DMX universes. It was controlled by 4 GrandMA2 desks and 4
NPU’s as included lamps and props that were required in this project and that
enabled everyone to see the full picture with accuracy of details. That’s even
without counting the 40,000 pixels used for control and programming in MADRIX
as part of the scenery!” said Eran Klein, senior light designer at Cochavi
& Klein.
Specific stage parts and sceneries were created
by Keith Greco, studio set designer and team at Greco Décor, Los Angeles using
Sketchup 3D modelling and these were imported into wysiwyg. “The ability to import Sketchup into wysiwyg and export back to Sketchup helped us to communicate and explain our
lighting design to the design team located 13,000 kilometres away from our
offices in Tel Aviv,” explained Eran Klein.
This feature has been greatly improved in wysiwyg version R36. Users can import drawings directly from Sketchup into wysiwyg and textures, layers, surfaces and object groupings are preserved as
they were created.
The previsualizations and high-resolution
renders were presented by Cochavi & Klein to each stakeholder and project
partner. “wysiwyg had a really great advantage in
letting other people see the project as it would look and evolve in a live
setting. It also allowed us to accomplish tasks prior to being implemented – an
amazing advantage,” said Klein.
The project took eight months to plan and when
at the venue comprising 6,000 square meters, there were just three weeks to
finalise and complete programming. “We had a wysiwyg studio located inside the venue and if we had not used wysiwyg, then we would not have had enough time to complete the programming
that summed up to over 2,300 lighting cues,” added Klein.
“The project was extremely successful and was
one of the most complicated projects that we have worked on. Having the right
tool set and the great people made the project an enjoyable experience –
including working with the amazing team at CAST!”
Project credits:
Skip Sherman – Chief Creative Office
Amir Schorr – Artistic Director
Ido Kagan – Co-Artistic Director
Avishay Giladie – Tour Manager
Pamela Schneider – Multimedia Director
Shay Bonder – ShowControl (Ventuz) Management
Cory Korkos – Chief Technological Officer
Amit Segall – Head of Abelton programming and R&D
PRG Spain – Lights,Sound and Video Rental
Company
Lior May-tal & Caco
Garcia – GrandMA2 Programmers
Images: © Cochavi & Klein
