After a two-year delay due to Covid-19, production designer Manfred Nikitser and Depence engineer Otto Schildknecht spent 12 hours per day working on getting everything up and running for the “Rock Believer” World Tour 2022/23. In their pop-up studio, everything revolved around a 68-inch flat screen that was mounted at the back of the room. On display was a Depence animation of the Scorpions playing on stage, vivid flames shooting left and right behind them, and a mass audience cheering them on. Manfred’s grandMA3 console was set up right in front of the screen, while half a dozen laptops and computers were organized into individual workspaces around. From behind, the buzzing sound of a massive server rack filled the silence. Usually, however, recordings of the Scorpions were heard all day long. Manfred explains that “our work here at pre-programming is targeted at connecting and creating the dynamic between all visual elements, which we will have in Vegas, on-site. We have set up the entire network here in the studio the way it will be in the venue, to make sure all components are speaking to each other and also to pre-program the show as efficiently as we can, before everything comes together.”

The Scorpions’ residency took place at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas from 26 March to 16 April 2022. The show presents an entire new stage set, video content and lighting design. In addition, the Scorpions premiered brand new songs from their latest album “Rock Believer”. Not only was the album just released at the beginning of this year, but it also bears the title of the world tour that will take place right after the residency, continuing until 2023.

With new tunes mixed with the old classic hits, it was important for Manfred to get his new design ideas across to the band and the management as best as possible. Using Depence was the way to go since, according to Manfred, “it is always easy to talk about things but it’s much better if you can show them through a moving image. So, rendering all these ideas and showing the band a video with music, like ‘this is what I am talking about’ and not talking in theory but rather having something to show that is close to reality, was very important.”

This was especially the case with visualizing the beginning of the show since one major focus of the new production design was to deliver a strong opening. Manfred remembers that it “was something we looked into in detail very early. We pre-programmed an idea of how the show opening can be and presented that to the band. Thanks to Depence it was possible to show the opening in a dynamic way, by recording all the elements in the upfront and then rendering it afterwards. That gave us a level of quality that we didn’t have in the past.” Manfred adds that “we pushed it really to the limits of what is possible by involving special characters, by involving the built-in audience within Depence, also by involving kinetics, et cetera, to really show the dynamics within the production design and to give the band options for extras, such as lasers or other elements, pyro, all of that. This was not planned but just to show ‘ok, we could do this in this song and this in that song’.”

Even beyond visualizing lighting looks and effects, Manfred emphasizes that “Depence was a huge asset throughout the entire process, not just for the production design process but also for the construction design phase.” While pre-programming had just started at the studio in Hamburg, the stage set, at this point, was already designed, built, and en route to Las Vegas.

On planning the stage set, Manfred explains that his goal was to create “a steel metal analogue look in a traditional rock’n’roll way.” To facilitate this creation process, he elaborates that “one of my personal key assets for this design, other than the easy workflow with the MVR export, was the usage of PBR materials. That gave me the option to look in detail into the haptics of the set design before even thinking about lighting,” adding that “once the set architecture and dimensions were planned and approved by our production management, we went through different PBR materials and did a lot of renderings.” The outcome is a spherical architecture, constructed out of metal grids that were specifically chosen, custom cut and colored for this set. Its arch structure serves as an optical rupture to the overall linear lighting and rig construction surrounding the stage. The pyramid- shaped drum riser that stands in front of the set is built with same material, completing the overall analogue characteristic of the stage set design.

With only a few days in the theater to rehearse and to prepare for opening night, the ability to visualize all the looks and ideas as precisely as possible has been key to creating and programming this show in advance. Regarding the overall development process, Manfred concludes that “Depence closes the gap within production designing phases because it is a software that finally involves all the elements that are used within entertainment.” As a last statement, he adds that “we are all very ambitious when it comes to presenting ideas and, finally, we have a tool that allows us to connect all the different technologies, such as lasers, lighting, video, all of that, in one software and render it in a quality where you stop and think ‘is this a photo or is this a rendering?’” Now, at last, the design is neither a photo nor a rendering. It has finally become a live experience to be enjoyed in Las Vegas.

Using Depence, Heberling was able to create detailed renderings following the design drawing process. The previz setup covered the lighting setup as well as all video surfaces and automation as the show was fed by media servers and had moving trusses in it. In this way the team was able to make out what was working for the show and what did not. The video design was made by content artist Eddie Mandell, Heberling and content house Greenwall Designs. The video programmer and show operator was Ishai Mika, who put together all loose ends and, by relying on Depence, made sure the LD had a full and realistic overview of the show during all preparations. Meanwhile creative director Sacha Jean-Baptiste made sure all areas, the band as well as the dancers were blend. Depence gave the opportunity to send updates and samples of the show and was the foundation for discussions and feedback within the creative process here too.

Although Depence comes with many extensive features to directly export magnificent high-quality renderings, the lighting team of Zara Larsson decided to capture the not less impressive real time rendering capabilities of the software. With quality tuned to the max, the captured output was directly sent to a cloud system, which allowed the creatives to immediately work on changes for the show. Greenwall Designs were running some heavy hardware machines in their previz studios, which in addition allowed them to render different parts of the rig besides the captured material.

Early in the process Gabre rendered 360° panorama material from different positions in the virtual venue. In this way he was able to get his head around potential issues and future challenges during the production period. The whole project had an interesting twist to it though, all because the lighting designer is living in Chicago, USA. Using Depence was a perfect way to present the stage and lighting design to him from within the virtual venue on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The design team was able to visualize the show from the audience’s perspective which was another great advantage.

“I have been using the software for about 18 months by now and rendered some really impressive results as well as running extremely heavy projects with 200+ universes and I think that the software is one of a kind but more importantly it is really easy to learn.” – Isak Gabre, 2022

The possibility to import all kinds of project data such as DMX patching, unit number data as well as different kinds of animated objects, moving people and Sketchup files into Depence also helped Gabre in his job as a previz engineer.

“For example, the venue was recently laser scanned by 3d-magician Edvard Hansson and the implementation of those very high detailed models was just too easy. I was afraid that this would slow down the Depence project file too much, but we didn't even notice a change in either quality or fps.”

Working on a lot of theater projects Gabre mainly uses Depence to share information in the creation process of renderings and planning. With Depence he can identify and highlight problems within the design but at the same time can come up with possibilities early in the creation process.

"Looking ahead, I don't think anyone can afford not to use software like Depence to get an early head start and refine the quality of production rehearsals and expensive real stage time. I would say that regardless of the type of project, there are real benefits to being as prepared as possible, avoiding as many unpleasant surprises as possible, and diving right into creativity."

_Credits

_{Anders Heberling - Director & Designer}

_{Isak Gabre - Programmer/Operator & Pre-viz Engineer}

_{Eddie Mandell, Anders Heberling, Greenwall Designs - Video Content Design}

_{Ishai Mika - Video Programmer & Show Operator | Live Footage Recordings}

_{Sacha Jean-Baptiste - Creative Director}

_{Edvard Hansson - Venue Scanning}

_{Andre Jofre - Content for "Never Forget You"}

Ti²² Design specializes in the live, concert and touring side of the entertainment industry, while Depence is being used both for creating initial pitches for stages as well as for the previsualization of shows. We spoke to Elliott Mountford, Director at Ti²² Design, who gave us some interesting thoughts on his work with Depence.

“Depence helped us on this project particularly because I couldn't fly to the states - And I was working with a USA programmer/operator. Depence allowed me to render out exactly what I wanted it to look like […].” - Elliott Mountford, Director Ti²², 2021

As the festivals played by LA based pop rock band HAIM needed to be designed and preprogrammed from London, Syncronorm’s multimedia show design and visualization software Depence was a huge help in the overall workflow of Ti²² Design. The support of .MVR files in Depence made it possible to easily import the stage drawings and to fluently get going with the show design. As the stage rig was changed for different venues, adjustments could be made very quick and effectively, especially for the festival house rig. The virtual camera of Depence also helped a lot to simulate different angles regarding the stage and to see where improvements could be made, also from the audiences’ perspective, as the indoor festival was a seated event. The team at Ti²² Design was also able to bring in NDI into the LED screen model from Resolume to test out various video content and to see whether all was working in combination with the lights.

“I’m most looking forward Depence becoming the new standard for festival previz, having lights, lasers, and video all together. […] Having a new industry standard for these departments will make everyone work closer together, rather than separately.”

After two years on hold, the elite E-Sports event finally took place again with a real-life audience and was streamed simultaneously on Twitch, the worldwide place to be streaming platform when it comes to video games. The CS:GO category was instantly rocketing to the 5th place of the worldwide Twitch streams as well as the 7th place in the top 10 most popular E-Sports events in all history. With a sum of 2 million US Dollar the tournament also had the biggest prize pool in the history of the Counterstrike franchise.

The team at Syncronorm is more than proud that the creatives at Bombee Event Production took advantage of the Depence multimedia show design system, which was used in great extend to help creating this stunning event. We also had the chance to have a word with Edvard Hansson, lighting designer and operator at the event, who gave us some insight in his work.

“Having a modern, powerful and advanced platform like Depence that specializes in our industry and utilizes these modern techniques opens up the possibilities to be more creative and improve the situation awareness for all parts involved, improving the end product as a whole for our customers.” – Edvard Hansson, 2021

The Depence system was mainly used to virtualize the whole venue, Hansson tells us. Cameras were implemented virtually as well as the NDI video input and automation which was sent directly from the game played at the event. The stage design and lighting design where also virtualized by using Depence, Hansson says. The trussing was imported via MVR. File support directly into Depence, which helped a great deal to display the venue as detailed as it was scanned beforehand. Main highlight of the production and workflow was the 3D spatial scanning of the venue, which then was transferred to Depence. This grants the maximum level of virtual detail as seen in the renderings of the event. With the scans, the team created a point cloud consisting of 9.8 billion points from a total of 21 scanning locations inside the venue.

“As our industry grows and more advanced technologies evolve, we believe we will see more features from other established industries like the gaming industry, construction industry or maybe IoT.”

Customer: Valve / PGL

Bombee Event Production AB:

Project Management / Logistics: Gustav Karlsson
Stage Designer: Thomas "Toiva" Savolainen
Game Automation and LED content: Philip Björkebro
Lighting Designer / Operator: Edvard Hansson
Photos: Edvard Hansson (Bombee) / Stephanie Lindgren (PGL)
Depence Renders: Edvard Hansson

Everything regarding stage logistics, design, rigging, lighting, LED, SFX and stage systems were planned and supplied by Bombee Event Productions AB.

Rig Specs:

526 sqm of LED
2104 LED panels
36,4 million pixles
759kw power
103 hoists
17 trailers with equipment
477 lighting fixtures
9x4k Video outputs to feed the LED screens
6600pcs cables
655m truss

„We do not play by the rules and in fact, there are no rules other than those we create for ourselves.” This was the mission which production company OTD Global got from client company Rapyd on their first meeting and the lead motive with which they began their creative process. The goal was to create more than a simple event, which ultimately ended up in a super creative event campaign involving various companies, creatives as well as artists.

Together with their client OTD Global, lighting & stage designers LEAD created “The Moment”. A new and anonymous brand with resulted in a massive 10-days-long event which was happening in various places all over Israel’s capital city of Tel-Aviv. The eye-catching triangle symbol, which was created for the “The Moment” and which was a central design element of this corporate event, was ever present over all of Tel-Aviv within this exciting week, packed with intriguing pop-up parties featuring famous top tier DJs, branded merchandise, drones in the skies and much more. After ten days, finally, the title “Rapyd” was revealed. The highlight of the campaign was the company's party, which included almost 12 hours of music played by some of the world’s most known DJ’s: Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, Martin Garrix, Nervo, Skazi and Intected Mushrooms. This massive event took place in two different locations – it began on the rooftoop of Tel Aviv’s famous Azrieli towers and continued into a crazy after party in Expo TLV that ended 12 hours later. The campaign generated huge attention and attracted public relations and interest among potential employee audiences.

The triangle shape was key to the design of the whole event. Taken from “The Moment” logo it has been used as a repetitive motive in different variations along the design. This also is reflected in the event layout, which features a 250 meters large triangular truss ceiling, light arrangements, LED screens and ultimately a huge triangle made of 16 Jorgos RGBW LED fixtures that were pixel mapped. This key element changed its angle and position above the stage through the length of the evening.

LEAD made extensive use of the Depence show control & visualization system by Syncronorm to plan and realize the stage as well as lighting design for this event: “The integration with Vectorworks through MVR saves a lot of time and it feels smooth and easy to draw in Vectorworks and render and pre-visualize in Depence.” Omer tells us. For LEAD, the greatest advantage regarding Depence is the rendering engine, which allows to create stunning visuals including most realistic materials and textures which respond to light as in the real world. They also made extensive use of the mass crowd feature, which lets you fill a huge stadium with thousands of virtual people with a couple of mouse clicks.

„Added to that it helps the designer to test and examine new concepts and ideas it has also been a huge time and money saver. The fact we are being able to pre-program a whole show in our studio and save time on set is a huge gamechanger for us, for the production and for all involved vendors.“ – Omer Israeli, LEAD, 2021

The Team involved:

Production Company: OTD Global
Client: The Moment (By Rapyd)
Technical Director: Rei Ben Tzvi, Jacob Glickman
Head Producers: Dana Klein, Liron Merker
Creative Director: Adi Lipsky
Event Designer: Shlomi illani
Light & Stage Design: LEAD (by Omer Israeli & Dor Aichner)
Lighting Operators: Naor Bonomo, Omer Israeli, Andrea Beckerman, Erik Mahowald, Gabe Fraboni
Video Content: Studio Insight, TwoFiftyK
Lasers Operator: Dor Aichner
Lights & Sound Vendor: Sincopa ltd.
Stages & Truss Vendors: Stage Design ltd.
LED Screens Vendors: Kolshar ltd, CleanLED Ltd
Neonflex & LED Tubes: LEDArts ltd.
Lasers: Saar Lasers, NRGSound
SFX & Pyro: MegaNight
Photographers: Eclipse Media, Ran Bergman

More info:

https://www.instagram.com/leadgrp/

https://www.facebook.com/leadgrpil

https://otdglobal.com/

https://jointhemoment.net/

Unforgettable performances and emotional speeches: the MTV Video Music Awards 2021 were packed with highlights featuring international artists such as Doja Cat, Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, Normani, Busta Rhymes and more.

Held September 12^th at the Barclays centre in Brooklyn, NY, the  37^th MTV Video Music Awards were hosted by Doja Cat and celebrated 40 years of MTV. The production design was done by Julio Himede from Yellow Studio whereas the lighting design was created by Tom Sutherland of DX7 Design. The team at DX7 used Depence to animate and render a showcase to show the full potential of the design to the producers and incoming artists.

www.dx7design.com

“Syncronorm means quality products with no compromise.” – Steve Bewley, Mandylights, 2021

We had the pleasure to speak with Steve, designer and director over at Mandylights, who gave us some glorious insight into the team’s tremendous work.

You have pre-programmed and visualized the show with Depence. Which features were of most benefit to you?

„Depence has been a game changer for our business and has allowed us to visualize, program and create stunning designs like never before. D2 really has filled a huge void that was missing in the industry and is now a piece of software that we use daily to help us create designs for concerts, architectural, corporate events, light art and much more.“

Any thoughts on the future of our industry and on how Depence comes into play?

„The future of our industry is very bright indeed as we use Depence more and more and push what it’s capable of we will see truly amazing results. As we are now able to visualize pretty much anything there is no limit to what we can create and put forward to our clients. I see D2 only getting better and better as it develops and that can only be a good thing for our industry, already we are seeing people using D2 in a variety of creative ways with stunning results.“

Do you see an advantage for your personal workflow? Which features are most convincing regarding your work?

„We absolutely love all of the features, we use everything from characters to importing 3d models and MVR files from vectorworks. The video features are simply amazing and the fact we can do green screen to create stunning virtual worlds is simply amazing. I could list all of the features here but I’ll simply say we use all of them and love them all!“

„Depence has transformed the quality of the pre visualising of our live performance shows in a way like never before. We really can show a client exactly how their show will look and using the software will save them hundreds of thousands in pre production fees as we can now do pretty much everything in the virtual world.“

At the festival, company Siyan who were supplying the house equipment, were running Depence, which allowed all incoming Lighting Designers to have the option to pre-visualize their show if required. The stage had 2 massive IMAG screens on either side, displaying a live camera feed, sent via NDI to the FOH which also allowed the placing of the video screen surface in Depence. Siyan provided a very detailed Depence file containing the Download Stage as well as the house rig. Mandylights then used this file to start pre-programming the Enter Shikari stage, which was transferred via MVR file support into Depence to program the whole rig, which just worked perfectly for them. Having the facility present at the actual FOH was a huge eyecatcher, too. Mandylights have invested heavily in both their UK and Australian offices, which sees exact replica state of the art Depence pre-viz studios on opposite sides of the world giving the company the ability to have 24 hour workflow.

Mandylights believe that with the right tools such as Depence, they now have the capability to save artists vast sums of money which otherwise would have been spent on lengthy production rehearsals. For the Enter Shikari performance Tom and Steve programmed the whole set inside the UK studio facility which meant they could also send renders of what they had done so far to the band. They knew that the production rehearsal space was not an exact copy of the Download festival stage, so the solution was to take the Depence system with them. In this way they could have the lighting, stage, house lighting rig, crowd etc. visualized on a large screen, so the band could have a look on the ongoing design process. The band members were simply blown away at how amazing the visualization looked, and on multiple occasions commented at how the technology and its capabilities has taken a massive leap forward. Mandylights comment: “It really was amazing to have them sat there with us and be able to say this is pretty much exactly how your show is going to look in the live environment.”

The import of NDI into Depence also was a massive help for this project and worked just perfectly. Mandylights were sending the video from a green hippo karst+ which allowed them to create a multitude of multi-faceted effects which a control by DMX alone cannot achieve.

Mandylights:

https://mandylights.com/

https://www.mandylightsu.com/

Having a whole new generation of shows in mind, the group around Louis Demacon and Feust Light decided to target virtual shows as the next big evolution in entertainment, the “event 3.0”. With the help of Syncronorm’s multimedia show design and visualization software system Depence, the team was able to realize a stunning integration of DJs, producers as well as artists in a true-to-life lunar setting.

Teamed up with the L’Assommoir production team for video broadcasting as well as Quartierlibre for event hosting, the shows were broadcasted back in April and additionally relayed to the YouTube channel of Lune Music to be rewatched. The goal of the stream was to achieve the record of 51 hours and 51 minutes in electronic live streaming, in reference to the French La Marne department.

The virtual festival was constructed in a realistic 3D representation of our Earth’s moon, which allowed a futuristic and artistic design approach. With the help of Depence, the team was able to implement a large and fully animated virtual crowd, outfitted with lighting bracelets which supported the mood of the actual show. The artists were integrated via NDI and the Depence chroma key feature, whereas cameras were programmed via DMX, giving the whole event a realistic touch. In addition to that, the FOH of a real festival was imitated, by having welcomed a lighting technician for each day of production. This was also represented in the virtual world as well - 21 hours of incredible live production were done in just 3 days.

Technical Overview:

Fixtures:

34 Robe BMFL Blade

40 Clay Paky DreamPanel Twin

50 Thomas FL1300

72 Elation Protron Eclipse

40 Robe Megapointe

8 Robe ColorStrobe 60°

24 Robe Ledbeam 150

6 Led Ring RGB DJ booth

Motion:

16 Moteur Asservies

FX:

23 X-Flamme F8

12 Tilt X-Flamme F8

21 Co2 Jet

Video:

500m² Mur Led

Some Numbers:

15 Day creation 3D/ design

10 Day settings/ programming

21h Operating/ 3 live night

10 Artists

1 Green screen 11x 3 m

330 Fixtures

23 Univers DMX

19 Screen

3 Midi Controler

60 Liter of beer

120m Truss box 400mm

Shows:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjzbtnL76z_HBh6entyT-sQ/videos

https://www.radioprimitive.fr/actualites/projet-51-51.html

Earlybird kicked off their year by supporting a fully virtual performance (read about it here

). Their next kick off, so to speak, was for the 2021 Super Bowl LV halftime show. The US based design support firm was brought onboard by lighting designer Al Gurdon, and were responsible for the programming and visualization of the widely televised broadcast production. Again, Earlybird relied on the performance and design capabilities of our multimedia show design and visualization system Depence, which led to a stunning halftime show, featuring the musical talents of ‘The Weeknd’: youtu.be/9rhadTURsrw

“Depence was necessary for this show due to the scope and scale of the project. There were many moving pieces, custom scenery, areas of high detail, and a visual fidelity that was required in order to present previz to other parties in the production. Depence let us work remotely, and informed important design changes and choices prior to arrival onsite.” – Earlybird, 2021

Earlybird was responsible for managing the coordination of control and circuiting of hundreds of scenic electrics. The set was fabricated by 3 separate vendors: TAIT Towers, Atomic Design and All Access, which created different parts of the stage scenery as well as custom built scenic elements. To bring their ideas to life, the teams have made extensive use of the Depence Asset builder, which was used to design over 50 custom fixtures such as LED neon tape, custom tungsten bulb arrays, light boxes, buildings, and more. All of these elements together helped to comprise a most professional and detailed working model, and subsequent pre-visualization of the final show.

“The ability to capture DMX, and export the programming before arriving onsite was a huge tool in helping the design team communicate their intentions visually. In addition to Depence’s ability to have a project of this size and still perform as well as it does, the most invaluable part of the program for this particular project was the Asset Builder.” – Earlybird, 2021

At first, the fixtures were prepared in Vectorworks, while models and texturing were prepared in Cinema4D. The easy-to-use import functions of Depence alongside the Asset Builder feature allowed the team to ultimately implement their files into the Depence 3D world. The lighting system as well as the RGB controllable stadium lighting system – which is already built in in house – were also added to the Depence project file. The previz programming was done at the Earlybird office in Burbank and onsite in Tampa using GrandMA2 consoles and 9 NPUs. With the help of Depence, preprogramming was comfortable, as changes could be made in real time according to decision making for the ongoing production phase. The team was able to test the impact and placement of additional fixtures even before dispatching changes to the onsite team, which was a huge help. The Depence project file was kept up to date throughout the preproduction phase as physical and patch changes came in through load in, and leading up to the first rehearsal.

Following the previz period in LA, presentation material in video form was rendered via Depence to send it to producers and the director to give them an idea of how the lighting programming would look at scale. This video then was incorporated into a larger creative previz video and was used to show the artist team the visual story of the show even before first rehearsals. Earlybird also imported the video content from screens producers Drew Findley and Dan Efros of DFP into the Depence model to play along on the timeline with the lighting programming. This was a huge help in understanding the relationship between lighting and video elements, which totaled 28 screens from 6 separate video sources (in Depence) in total.

Lighting Personnel

^{Designer: Al Gurdon}

^{Lighting Directors: Jeff Nellis, Ben Green}

^{Lighting Directors/Programmers: Eric Marchwinski, Mark Humphrey}

^{Gaffer: Alen Sisul}

^{Best Boys: John Cox, Dennis Sisul, Alejandro Flores}

^{Best Boys: John Cox, Dennis Sisul, Alejandro Flores Best Boys / Lead Followspots: Jason Uchita, Adam Hagin, Mikey Smallman, Daisy Toledo}

^{Chief Tech: Robb Minnotte}

^{PRG Lead Techs: Meg Flanagan, Chris Nye}

^{Previz Tech: Nick Coauette}

^{Stadium Lighting Tech: Michael Dodge}

^{The Weeknd Lighting Designer: Jason Baeri}

Lighting Equipment

^{4x grandMA2 Fullsize}

^{118x Robe Robin 1200 Wash}

^{1x grandMA2 Light}

^{50x GLP X4}

^{9x grandMA2 NPU}

^{18x Clay Paky Xytlos}

^{8x PRG Bad Boy GC LT}

^{112x Elation Proteus Maximus}

^{2x PRG Best Boy HP GC}

^{210x Martin RushPar2}

^{64x PRG Best Boy HP}

^{180x Martin Dotron}

^{22x PRG Bad Boy HP Framing}

^{200x Solaris Flare}

^{152x PRG Icon Edge}

^{704x ChromaBeams 900}

^{55x Chauvet Nexus AW 7x7}

^{420x Scenic RGB}

^{6x VL600 Beam}

^{369x Scenic Dimmers}

^{64x Robe Spikie}

We are happy to have had the opportunity to speak to Nick Coauette and Mark Humphrey from the Earlybird team, who have directly worked on the pre-visualization of the project. The two of them not only have an immense amount of experience in the Depence software, but always aim to push boundaries of what is possible in live and virtual production:

Which benefits does Depence² offer for virtual events?

Nick: Depence² offers a unique solution to virtual events because it is the only previz program right now that offers such high graphic fidelity. When rendered out at the highest quality, it is difficult to discern virtual from true reality. This project was an excellent example on how the line between what is real and what is not can very easily be blurred in a positive way.

What does Depence², as a multimedia show design software, mean for the future of our industry?

Mark: Depence², as a whole, brings a new look and feel to the pre-viz process on a show. It's not just a tool to program and see what the lighting is going to look like before getting onsite. Now with Depence², you can envision the entire show from top to bottom before even seeing it in person and really get a sense for what the show will be. There are so many features that Depence² has like the volumetric editor, animation importer, video content mapping, and more that open up so many possibilities for the software that make it much more than just a previz tool.

Which features benefit your personal workflow most?

Nick: Even though it is not directly supported by, the Asset builder is one of the most versatile and useful tools within Depence². Oftentimes we have to visualize fixtures that cannot be found within the library or that are completely custom and having the ability to create them within a program made to do so is game changing. Creating fixtures to use was typically a cumbersome or impossible process but now with the Asset builder it is made both easy and intuitive.

Mark: The DMX Stream tool as a whole is a revolutionary function. Being able to record DMX and render out that DMX data is such an invaluable tool to have. Where Depence² shines as a product is with the water texture and reflections with that texture. The water texture brought so much more realism into the show. One final feature that is innovative is the chroma key feature. Having this feature allows for so much more possibilities with the software itself.

Was there automation? What was automated?

Nick: There were 4 uses of automation: the center stairs that raised up and down bringing in the artist, both rings were able to move up and down and rotate in all directions, and the plane with the green screen footage on it was made to rotate and always be facing the camera when it moved.

How was the project programmed?

Mark: The project was produced by the team at Blink Inc. with creative direction by The Squared Division, and production design by Chase Hall. Programming was done from the Earlybird previz studios in Burbank, CA using a GrandMA2 Full-Size console with 4 NPUs to unlock the extra parameters we were using. I programmed from our studio while communicating with Andre Petrus, who lives in Nashville, over video conference while we were also streaming the Depence² real time render window to a server so Andre and the rest of the creative team could watch and give notes.

How was the project output/rendered and delivered?

Mark: After we finalized all lighting/automation programming, video content, and camera placement we then recorded all DMX data using the DMX Stream function, lined up audio and content with lighting, and we were ready to go. We rendered each camera out on 3 of our in house previz computers, each fitted with a Titan 2080Ti graphics card. We had 6 full length cameras that we rendered out and then 7 pickup shots mixed in throughout the performance. In the end we delivered the frame sequences to Blink, who completed the final edit, and delivered the full length product to the end client.

How many fixtures were in the show? What types?

Nick:

300 Mythos

550 JDC1

200 Flare

4 motors

What does the name Syncronorm mean to you?

Mark: The Syncronorm name, to me, means knowing that I am working in a stable piece of software that looks beautiful with great customer support behind it. The Syncronorm folks are open to new ideas that better the software and pushes it further than any previz software on the market now, as well as working with you to explain processes of how to achieve the show you are trying to build.

Nick: Syncronorm to me means innovation and a new future for previz. Never before have we seen the graphic fidelity that is displayed in Depence² in any other software and it truly opens up the door for many more possibilities in the previz process. Not only does the name Syncronorm mean a new future for previz, it also means community to me. The user-base for this program is so active and helpful and everyone is pushing the program to the limits to try and find new ways to achieve their goals. Syncronorm communicates and reaches out to their community often and makes me and other feel welcome and supported.
 

People involved in the project:

Creative Direction: The Squared Division
Producers: Blink
Production Design: Chase Hall
Lighting Direction: Andre Petrus
Lighting Programming: Mark Humphrey
Production Facilities in Medellín: 36Grados
Editing & Post Production: Blink
Visualization & Render Support: Earlybird

Drafting/Initial Depence modeling & build: Morgan Evans

The all-new Sensation ’Monument of Light’ is aimed to be a flag of hope and faith since the original plans for the show had to be canceled due to the ongoing virus situation. The show was realized without any kind of live crowd and created by the original Sensation team around creative director Sander Vermeulen of ID&T. The music was composed by Joshua Dutrieux & the show was created in a collaboration with T-Minus design, who were responsible for the lighting design and programming .It was broadcasted on the 4th of July (the original date for the event in Amsterdam) and can be re-watched here: www.sensation.com/monument-of-light

We at Syncronorm are very happy that we had the chance to contribute to this amazing project, as the show was pre-programmed & visualized with Depence². For this a 3D model of the arena itself was imported into Depence², after that 484 fixtures as well as the aesthetics shaping mannequins were placed virtually. The show in combination with the custom-made audio track was then programmed via ArtNET on a MA3 and NPU, all independent from location within the studio. The virtual camera of Depence² thereby allowed to simulate the drone shots, which were taken in the arena. In this way it was possible to take dramatic shots & to stage the mannequins in a perfect light.

“All was programmed in the studio. The set was built and recorded on one day, so accuracy was key. […] The visualisation gets really close to reality, what helps if there is limited load in time.” – Sander den Otter, T-Minus design

T-Minus design have used the Depence² Stage & Animate modules for the pre-programming process as well as the animation. Here, Depence² helped to create previews with perfectly synced audio.

For more information about T-Minus design, please visit: http://www.t-minusdesign.com/

To make a statement within the scene, the two well experienced show designers took Syncronorm’s powerful & innovative show design software Depence² and created the “Rock in Rio Demo Project” showcase. “von | BERG“ are trying to deliver the most realistic images of what is technically possible. Specialized on multimedia show visualization, all customers are free to concentrate on their visions & ideas as ultimately can they rely on “von | BERG“’s know-how to create virtual worlds.

“Taking Depence² to its limits is hard work” – Flo Erdmann

Flo & Dominik decided to build an extraordinary showcase project, which is based on a virtual version of the famous Rock in Rio stage, Rio de Janeiro – Brazil.

"Rock in Rio" is a festival series which has enjoyed great popularity for years and is a constant in the worldwide festival scene. We used the unique stage as a test object to try out the limits of Depence2. One thing in advance: We did not reach them. The goal was to visualize a surrounding scenery and not just a stage show, as is so often the case. – von | Berg, 2020

This large-scale project is a demonstration of what can be achieved by using Depence². The project is versatile and of a most realistic character and was created without any compromises in thought. Flo & Dominik decided to focus on this particularly distinctive stage, because its look has a unique value of recognition. Furthermore, the two driven designers not only wanted to show the stage itself, but the whole festival area and to bring in as much detail to the design as possible.

These small details create a very close connection to the real thing. For example, characteristics such as the rotating Ferris wheel, illuminated stands, a moving/animated crowd and a dynamic camera cut are bringing in a huge level of realism. As for the DMX camera: “von | BERG“ are proud to have such a special feature now added to their portfolio of services. The light- and pyro-show were recorded at first simultaneously to the DMX camera, all via DMX stream. The 4K imagery was rendered afterwards. The show itself was created with the Stage, Animate & Special FX modules of Depence² & programmed on a GrandMA3.

“The type of texturing possibilities and the associated realistic display as well as the import of bone-animated characters raises preprogramming to a new level.”

For more information on “von | Berg” visit:

https://www.facebook.com/raumvonberg/

https://www.instagram.com/raum_vonberg/

Morgan studies Creative Lighting Control at Rose Bruford College in London and has been working with current developments in technology including working as an associate on projects with established lighting designers such as Tim Routledge in the UK. He also has worked as a lighting technician on a variety of live events such as the BRIT Awards, Capital Summertime Ball and the National Television Awards. We took the chance to speak with Morgan in detail on his work with Depence² and his brand-new fictional personal project, a conceptual show based on music act Dua Lipa, which inspired him:

https://morgantevans.com/portfolio/depence2concept/

Syncronorm: Morgan, what is your new show about?
 

ME:
In my latest design concept I wanted to push the advances in technology and my own design experience to see what results were possible. Therefore I decided to set this personal project in London’s Brixton Academy as a special one-off fan concert programmed to the music of Dua Lipa. The lighting and video design had to be realistic to both physical and financial constraints. I worked independently on this project over several months, starting with initial design ideas, then programming, creating content design and pre-vis rendering.

Syncronorm: What were your ideas & motives behind the show?

ME: My lighting and video designs were primarily influenced by the mood of the songs and their lyrics. I was keen to use moving truss, which formed the central core of my lighting design. The stage automation allowed for a huge variation of configurations, a greater amount of looks and provided more versatility out of the fixtures. It also gives much more depth to something that otherwise would be just static and the movement is used to create feeling in addition to the lighting. My goal was to use video content sparingly to create a bigger impact in the select songs that were video focused. I used a variety of lighting techniques such as video bitmaps and in-sync bumps to tie the design together.

Syncronorm: How did you handle the workflow?

ME: For me the workflow felt very natural coming from a background working with programs such as Adobe After Effects and Unreal Engine. I was able to get my project modelled and visualised in Depence2 very quickly. Importing VectorWorks files is seamless with MVR imports, fixtures are intelligently replaced and models are easily transferred and textured.
 

Syncronorm: What features of Depence² were especially helpful while programming your show?

ME: After seeing the functionality and quality of the renders produced by Depence², I knew it was the best tool for this project – reliable software capable of producing extremely high quality multimedia renders. With game engines and 3D video render engines becoming more and more powerful, software for the live events industry is an ideal application for this new technology. Depence² offers a high level of visualisation that capitalises on these exciting new advances. It has realistic fixtures and 4k photo-realistic video renders that make it far easier for a designer to demonstrate a concept to an artist or band. There is no need to compromise on quality for speed – textures, atmosphere and reflections can be rendered in real time. Camera animation helped add feeling and a variety of audience viewpoints. The realistic renders makes it much easier to watch and visualise how a design project might look in real life. Animated custom characters add another layer of realism to projects, along with a huge library of vehicles, special FX and textures.

Syncronorm: What differences have you noticed, working with Depence² in contrast to working with other show-design software?

ME: The timeline nature of Depence² is one of the main reasons it’s so powerful, allowing for a variety of media cues – whether these are produced internally or recorded from external sources – to be collated. The Art-Net stream recording is a great feature, allowing you to record in all your preprogramming and then scrub through your timeline after disconnecting your hardware.
 

If you’re interested in his work, feel free to visit: www.morgantevans.com or contact: morgan@morgantevans.com

In cooperation with their partner company TSE Poland, TSE Qatar was founded in 2019 as an independent venture under the creative lead of Peter Heybutzki, who is deeply rooted within the show production & lighting industry for over 30 years. Heybutzki started to work on his vision of a vast and innovative EDM festival concept way back in 2018 & now relies on Depence² to let his ideas become reality.

As former user of Realizzer 3D, successful software-predecessor to Depence², Heybutzki was already used to the creation of 3D worlds, but now profits from Depence²’s new software rendering engine, which allows a drastically more realistic approach to the display of multimedia show elements such as lighting, laser, fire and even water. TSE also was in need of such variety as the EDM music genre itself offers intense live experiences with breathtaking shows all around the globe. To capture the energy & feeling of this music, all visuals were needed to fit on point. For this reason, all kinds of bright & colorful strobes as well as beams were used, also in combination with the excessive use of video wall content. While designing, the structure of Asian architecture was a main focus point for inspiration and can be found in many aspects of the final production design. With Asian temples & buildings as ideational concept, the center of the stage means to symbolize a crown, a ceremonial Thai headdress. C1 motors & fixtures are capable of moving this center piece of the stage in various ways, while the beams in between produce a kind of sun-like look, also displaying Asian imagery. On the center stage, beams, Atomics and 5x5 WW LED panels are circularly positioned around the DJ. To reduce potential build-up time the installation of décor was reduced to a minimum, furthermore two large screens are being one of the highlights of the project. Here two 12x20m screens are in use via rear projection. An octagon like structure is placed above the FOH, which is mounted with various lighting fixtures, while it is carrying different panels as well as Atomics. The suspension elements are hanging freely within the room and are separated in five main lines, which are equipped with beams, spots, washs as well as blinders. These elements are capable of being moved via C1 motors, too.

“The combination of different lights and video walls are a guarantee for sheer endless combinations and when I say endless, I mean it. […] Thanks to Syncronorm for this mighty software tool… […]” – Peter Heybutzki, TSE (2020)

The shapes & rigging plans of the project were created in VectorWorks prior to the initial arrangement of design elements. Via Depence²’s .MVR interface, importing the project file was quick and smooth. The project has a total of over 1000 fixtures & was connected to a secondary machine running Resolume (via NDI).

For more information on TSE visit: www.tse.qa

The most recent MOSAIK-Live Arena Tour of the famous German hit-act Andrea Berg is a huge spectacle and fuses a massive set of multimedia shows including great deals of organization & logistics. With equally great performances and breathtaking show elements, a more than enthusiastic audience repeatedly is taken away by a most detailed & well-planned production, which was started way back in 2019. The show production thereby is realized by evento PSC from Germany, which already have been working on various indoor arena shows & events in the past, delivering a great result based on their vast experience within the multimedia show business. Syncronorm is happy to have had contributed to this enormous live event series by providing the newest version of our Depence² multimedia show design & real-time visualization software system. The show was designed & planned with Depence², while the sophisticated visualization was used to beforehand preview all the elements & different phases in the most realistic way, helping operators, designers & artists alike.

Syncronorm had the opportunity to speak with Gustavo Buss Cárdenas, who is responsible for the studio department at evento PSC. Together with his team, he helped to realize the different show segments of the tour by programming & visualizing them in Depence². The renderings not only helped to realize the artists vision, but also to monitor the production on location.

“Here, Depence² reaches a very high level of performance, stability & realism. […] The pre-programming and the resulting presentation for our customers are particularly to be pointed out.” – Gustavo Buss Cárdenas

evento is using Syncronorm’s Depence² visualization system alongside powerful hardware, e.g. light desks, and in combination with other 3D rendering software as Depence² supports a flawless integration into most workflows & systems. Set up in a specifically arranged studio environment, evento are producing most complex multimedia shows always being able to consider looks & presentation during every step of the production process. Depence² has become an integral component of the studio’s workflow.

“Pre-viz products seriously are forming a great proportion of the show production process, with a rising trend. They give us the opportunity to try out different styles & designs beforehand and to cost-effectively present these to our customers. […] Because of the neat workflow, long technical rehearsals and over-night programming on location are history.”