WorldStage Provides Technical Support for Tribeca Festival as In-Person Events Resume in New York

New York City is back and evidence of its reopening as coronavirus cases fall is everywhere.  One of the most popular annual events to return marked its 20th anniversary with a name change and a broader array of activities throughout the city than ever before.  The Tribeca Festival (formerly the Tribeca Film Festival) ran June 9-20 with WorldStage providing technical support for numerous in-person event venues. Longtime WorldStage client Overland Entertainment Company was the producer of the festival.   

WorldStage supplied a combination of LED videowalls, audio packages, lighting and video switching for five of the main venues: Empire Outlets, The Battery, Pier 76, Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place and Brooklyn Commons at MetroTech.  WorldStage also supported two trucks that presented roving screenings in all five boroughs, the “AT&T Presents: Untold Stories” competition at WarnerMedia Innovation Lab, an event hosted by Art Awards curator Vito Schnabel and closing night at Radio City Music Hall.

“Organizing and coordinating our support for the Tribeca Festival required a great deal of attention to detail, extensive site surveys, being very creative with budgets since the outdoor events had free ticketing this year, scheduling labor and equipment, and dealing with weather challenges, including a three-day mini heat wave with thunderstorms,” says Account Executive Andy Muller, who led the WorldStage team.

ROE CB5 LED video tiles formed the building blocks for all of the main venues’ videowalls supplied by WorldStage.  BNW Rigging provided the rigging for the videowalls rated to withstand 50 mph winds.  Audio packages included assorted mics, d&b line arrays, Yamaha consoles, and intercom and wireless communications.

For the festival’s premier venue at The Battery WorldStage provided a complete package with a 53 x 29-foot LED videowall with Barco video processor, an audio kit, video switching and an extensive range of lighting fixtures, including Elation, Chauvet, Astera, Kino Flo, Robe, Claypaky and a grandMA 2 full console.  The location not only presented film screenings but also featured live performances by rock-n-roll icons KISS and Blondie that accompanied documentaries about the bands.

For the main locations of Waterfront Plaza, Pier 76, Empire Outlets and MetroTech WorldStage furnished custom packages featuring LED videowalls, video switching, audio and lighting.  The roving borough-to-borough trucks, which visited public parks and screened films for workers daily at the FreshDirect warehouse, were equipped with audio packages.  WorldStage also supplied studio lighting for the panel at WarnerMedia Innovation Lab for the livestreamed “AT&T Presents: Untold Stories” competition designed to give access to stories from underrepresented filmmakers.

 The festival’s closing night event marked the reopening of the iconic Radio City Music Hall for a special surprise concert featuring Dave Chappelle and his documentary, “This Time This Place.”  Radio City was packed to capacity with a live audience while WorldStage provided a three-camera shoot that fed graphics and live video to IMAG screens on stage and to the archival record. 

“It’s great to be back producing large-scale, live events throughout the New York area like the Tribeca Festival,” notes Leane Romeo, President, Overland Entertainment Company.  “We all really felt the energy, excitement and camaraderie of being together again at the show sites. And WorldStage came through for us as always!”

At WorldStage Tommy Boyd was the overall Project Manager for the festival. Susanna Harris-Rea was in charge of lighting for many of the festival’s outdoor locations.  Project Managers for the individual venues were Armando Acevedo, Tom Whipple, Peter Smith, Chris DeMott, Joe Solari and Matt Talman.  Kate Brown was the Audio Designer and Paige Pinckney the head of the LED department.

WorldStage Inc., the ultimate resource for event engineering, technology and imagination, continues a forty-year legacy of providing clients the widest variety of entertainment technology coupled with conscientious and creative engineering services. WorldStage provides audio, video and lighting equipment and services to the event, theatrical, broadcast and brand experience markets nationally and internationally.  WorldStage has also developed Digital Oasis, a comprehensive online hosting solution for the live-event community as well as xR stages in New York, Nashville and San Francisco.  For more information visit www.worldstage.com