Meeting Services, Inc. (MSI) handled the AV work at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Trevor Hoffman in Cooperstown, New York, and then returned to San Diego for the special event celebrating Hoffman’s return to San Diego, part of a four-day long celebration at Petco Park that also included the unveiling of a Trevor Hoffman statue.

Lighting designer Leonard Delgado and the team at MSI were contracted to spotlight the famed pitcher for a final 10-second solo spot salute from the pitcher’s mound in which every light in the park would be off. “They initially wanted me to use two user-operated followspots on him to pick him up on the pitcher’s mound,” Delgado explains, “but for many reasons I wanted to use Elation Artiste Picassos instead. The followspots would have blocked sight lines and in the back of my mind I knew the Artiste Picasso had the power to do it even though I was told that with a throw of 350 feet I was pushing the limits of the fixture. But I really wanted to see what the fixture could do!”

Delgado had used the Artiste Picasso on a previous project and was confident that the fixture’s 23,000 lumens of power and 620W LED engine could do the job. One of the biggest issues he faced however was where to place the fixtures. Coincidentally, he happened to be attending a Padres game at Petco Park when he found out about the project. “I got off my phone and immediately began to look around. I quickly identified three upper level camera well positions that would be ideal,” he said. “One was behind home plate and there was one each along the first base and third base lines.” Although MSI had worked other events at Petco Park in which they had placed lights in the upper deck, for those events the stadium’s highest seating area was always void of people. For the Trevor Hoffman celebration however the upper deck was teaming with fans.

Delgado’s challenge therefore was to avoid blocking sight lines while keeping cabling to a minimum. His solution was to mount the Artiste Picassos on a 2′ truss to keep the fixtures out of the line of sight to the field. The designer was able to avoid cable ramps by running DMX behind seats and taped along staircases. Further, because the camera wells are essentially long lens camera positions with an AV patch and power outlets, he was able to plug fixtures directly into nearby outlets and run the fixtures at 120 volts. After several trial runs, four Artiste Picassos worked from the front light camera well located behind home plate with two Picassos each at the first and third base position camera wells.

Before the big moment came and to help build anticipation, a 10-second countdown appeared on the outfield LED wall. At 5 seconds the stadium lights dimmed to 50% and at zero the entire stadium blacked out. The eight Artiste Picassos then went into action, casting their full power 350 feet as Hoffman ran out onto the mound. The San Diego fans naturally went wild as the pitcher saluted the crowd, says Delgado, who ran the Picassos at full intensity, zoomed at 7% with the iris brought in to about 40%.

After the 10-second spotlight the Picasso’s went to black and a fireworks show began along with video highlights from the right-hander’s career. It was a moving tribute to a star pitcher that was shared by the entire city of San Diego. It was also a satisfying moment for Delgado himself. “My ten seconds of fame!” he joked afterwards.

About MSI Production Services (EST. 1946)

As with the rest of the country, San Diego in the 1940s saw unprecedented growth and technological advancement. Meeting Services, Inc. (MSI) was born out of this newfound prosperity, providing audio and lighting equipment to local companies. Over the years, as San Diego’s industry and tourism expanded, MSI did as well, expertly designing and installing state of the art sound systems for the smallest corporate meetings to the largest conferences, conventions, trade shows, fundraisers, sporting events, artistic performances, and political speeches. Today MSI offers a complete line of event production, technological support, and equipment rental services, and continues to ensure the success, efficiency, and productivity of our clients’ special gatherings, large and small, around the block and around the world.

For more information, contact Ed Lafever at elafever@msiprod.com