“ But it wasn ’ t a foregone conclusion that we were going to succeed ,” Wichansky adds . “ When we started , they were in the process of writing the protocols . They hadn ’ t picked countries , never mind cities .”
In terms of partners , given Hotopp ’ s experience providing Emmy Award-winning set and production design and art direction for television , work on corporate events with clients including Mercedes and Disney , and in the live performance and immersive attraction business , they were a perfect fit . As they put it on their website , Hotopp ’ s gig , in a nutshell , is “ Making the impossible possible .” “ We focus on guest experience no matter what that means , so it ’ s looking at it through the lens of , ‘ Who ’ s the audience ?’ That was the core principle . We ’ re not fooling anybody . They know the arenas are empty so it was , ‘ Let ’ s make it look great , but not hide the arena .’ It was also remembering the game is always going to be first . That ’ s what people care about – seeing hockey , not production . We had to support that in a way that made the absence of fans less noticeable . The objective was finding a way to ensure the game was the main focus and that the environment felt natural and exciting .”
To achieve that result , the Hotopp team — including Lead Producer Rachel Davis , who oversaw the project in Toronto , and Art Directors Christina Fremgen and Elke Schnittker — worked closely with the NHL conceptualizing and designing the lighting and AV systems for games in Toronto ’ s Scotiabank Arena and Edmonton ’ s Rogers Place .
With a working vision in place , Hotopp sub-contracted video providers / specialist WorldStage Inc ., led by VP and Account Executive Michael T . May . As well , Mayer himself brought on board Lighting Designer Tom Kenny , who has worked with legendary performers like The Who , Page & Plant , and David Bowie , among others .
“ It ’ s funny how this came about . Steve ’ s a friend of mine and when this all kicked in , I asked him what he was going to do , and he said , ‘ I don ’ t know , but we ’ ve got to do something for the fans ,” Kenny explains . In May , after Kenny saw an online post about the NHL moving forward – “ an image of all these screens and lights and stuff ” – he contacted Mayer immediately . “ I said , ‘ What ’ s going on ? I ’ m your lighting designer ’. And Steve went , ‘ Tom , you are our lighting designer . Let me call you back ’. Then he put me in touch with Gary and we immediately started working on it .”
“ The NHL had a high degree of confidence in Tom from work they ’ ve done together and creatively he and I saw eye-toeye and had a dialogue and developed a lot of trust quickly ,” Wichansky says .
Hotopp ’ s vision was to fill space without distracting in any way from the game . “ I know what works in stadiums / arenas because of all the people I ’ ve worked with ,” Kenny says , “ but until we got involved in the design , I didn ’ t really think about the fact we had to do this under hockey lighting , which is very bright , but that helped me steer the design towards certain products and fixtures .”
In addition to needing to “ blow through the ice lighting ,” Kenny says , “ we had about several minutes at the beginning of each game for the national anthems , and some other places that had pure lighting . But the other problem was that they didn ’ t want too much haze or smoke .” While the application is substantially different from a concert setting , like a live show the lighting and video production was integral to the experience of the players and audience alike .
In June , when Edmonton and Toronto were confirmed as the host cities , Kenny reached out to Solotech . “ I immediately
thought of them because all I ’ d ever heard was good things about them .”
This was far from the first time Solotech has worked hockey games , explains Solotech ’ s VP of Live Productions , Lee Moro : “ We ’ ve done projection and ice mapping for a number of teams , but with individual teams and venues – nothing directly with the NHL .” Given Solotech had roughly two weeks to put the rig together , being a Canadian company with a solid reputation for meeting complex requirement swiftly and effectively factored heavily into Kenny ’ s choice .
Additionally , like many production companies , Solotech had a large inventory of equipment that had been pulled off the road owing to the pandemic . “ With so many tours coming to a halt , we were able to give them a pretty good offering , and Tom definitely had ideas about what he wanted ,” Moro says , citing linear LED fixtures such as the TMB Flare Q as an example of a flexible “ workhorse ” fixture ideal for creating eye
Winter 2020 |
19