Signal Distribution: Jubilee! Live Show
Sep 16, 2014 9:15 PM
The longest-running production in Las Vegas, the “Jubilee!” burlesque extravaganza resident at Bally’s is a seven-act spectacular, which debuted in 1981. It stars iconic showgirls dressed in costumes designed by Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee, and boasts a set featuring the sinking of the Titanic and a 27ft., 3-ton bull for the Samson and Delilah tableau.
Burbank-based Chaos Visual Productions did the signal distribution and AV for the show. Chaos Visual supplies the international production industry with the latest in technology and personnel to make its creative visions come to life. Chaos Visual provides specialty lighting, LED special effects, video projection, and show programming for live concert touring, corporate events, and live 3D video presentations.
Behind the scenes is a Lightware USA MX-FR33R digital crosspoint router with redundant power supplies, built-in control panel, and CPU2. The Lightware 33×33 router was selected for the permanent install for Jubilee! that includes 11 Ventuz media servers and 16 Barco projectors. The router handles all of the monitoring and signal distribution for the equipment. Because all of the media servers are local, the frame is populated with DVI input boards and a fiber-optic output board to feed the longer runs to projection, eliminating the need to run local fiber transmitters in the rack.
“Eight projectors are dedicated to the front-projection surfaces,” says Chaos Visual Project Manager Cory Froke. “There are 72 different front-projection surfaces—screens that come on and off stage, line sets with scenery, and projection mapping on every piece of scenery. There are two more projectors on yokes and six for the rear-projection screen. Lightware routes it all.”
Froke says the Lightware 33×33 router was chosen for its reputation. “We set up some external scripting for automatic fail over for projectors and for distributing monitoring and cameras to various positions,” he says. “The Lightware router is working fantastic after more than six months on the job; they’ve had zero problems with it. We’ve never had a Lightware router crash on us whether on an installation or a tour.”
