Glenn Beck

When Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly kicked off the 2010 leg of their Bold & Fresh Tour, Scharff Weisberg hit the road to provide turnkey services for the politically-charged cavalcade. Scharff Weisberg also provided support when Beck struck off on his own for the American Revival Tour.

Scharff Weisberg handled the complex logistics of providing seamless AV and lighting for both national tours, delivering a high-quality, cost-effective solution for the multi-city venues.

Rich Bonn, Tour Manager from Mercury Radio Arts for the initial three-city Bold & Fresh Tour, lighting designer Dennis Menard and production designer Martin Graves partnered to create the look for show. Then Scharff Weisberg’s Erik Perry and Terry Jackson prepared custom arena lighting rigs and David Lynd designed full audio packages for back-to-back shows in Tampa, Charleston and Norfolk, Columbus and St. Louis.

The lighting package for the tour included L&E 6-foot mini strip lights and ColorBlaze 72s, Source Four lekos, PARs and VARI*LITE VL2500s. Lighting control was supplied by Wholehog 3s and grandMAs.

Audio and video support for all locations consisted of custom-designed V-Dosc line arrays supplemented with d&b line arrays, Yamaha M7CL and PM5D consoles and E6 Headsets, four Sony DXC-D50 cameras, a Panasonic multi-format switcher and two large 18’x24’ screens with dual-converged Christie S+16 projectors.

After Norfolk, the next stop for Glenn Beck was his American Revival Tour at the University of Central Florida Arena in Orlando. “This was a completely different show with an end stage in the round, requiring modified lighting, video and audio,� reports project manager Guy Bostian. “Jim vanBergen, the technical supervisor from Mercury Radio Arts for this tour, was instrumental in pulling it together.�

Video screens were hung back-to-back behind the stage, and Barco R12 projectors were utilized for all four screens, dual converged. Beck introduced some video clips for the show, played back from Grass Valley Turbos, along with an extensive PowerPoint presentation. Four cameras were all switched with a Grass Valley Kayak. Scharff Weisberg also provided two d&b line arrays and additional lighting.

The American Revival Tour staged a similar show at the Jobing Arena in Phoenix.

“It has been a great experience working with these tours,� Bostian remarks. “The planning and execution has been a collaboration of many talented people, including Daryl Carmen and Jim vanBergen and our on-site project manager Terry Jackson and director of audio David Lynd. Dennis Menard, Martin Graves and head rigger Tony Bonilla went above and beyond to facilitate rigging and lighting,� he adds.

Scharff Weisberg and Video Applications are collaborating partners to clients requiring unique and imaginative solutions for their event, spectacle and large-meeting lighting, sound and video needs whether local, national or worldwide. For more information visit www.scharffweisberg.com or www.videoapps.com.