Times Square NYE Webcast

An estimated 2 million people ushered in the new year in Times Square to watch the famed ball drop at midnight. Millions more tuned in and watched the celebration from the comfort of their homes. ProdWorks was tasked with lighting the Times Squares New Year's Eve webcast using gear from 4Wall New York.

Live X is the production company contracted to produce the six-hour live stream event. The webcast presents a "behind the scenes" look at the production of the entire event along with streaming all of the live performances happening in Times Square and around the world. The webcast viewership has grown steadily over the years, and in 2016 came in higher than any other network except ABC.

ProdWorks Lighting Designer Douglas E. Carnevale has been lighting the webcast since its inception in 2010. "The first two years the show originated from upstairs at the Hard Rock Café NYC on 43rd St. and from above the Hard Rock marquis," said Carnevale. "The past two years the show has had its own home base stage just north of the ABC stage."

The webcast stage is historically used for interviews and wraparounds, but this year had its first musical performance by a local artist. The LD utilized 6 Arri S60-C SkyPanels on stage to provide a soft base of 200+ FC. "The SkyPanel is one of my favorite instruments currently, due to its high output, versatile color control and soft light," explained Carnevale. "Many of the current LED instruments available only provide one or the other."

The LD made sure to add 4Wall's newly acquired Chroma-Q Color Force II to his lighting package as well. He used the 48" Color Force II fixtures as eye candy for the camera as well as a ring of 12" Color Force II fixtures lighting the outside perimeter of the stage. "I really liked the new Color Force II strips for their high output, but more so for the new lenses," said the LD. "The homogenised light looks so much better than the bare LEDs, in my opinion."

Chroma-Q Color One pars were used as truss warmers and Color Kinetics iWhites for footlights. 4Wall also provided ETC Desire D40 Studio HDs for cross keys.

Carnevale spoke highly of the service he received from 4Wall.

"Thanks to the 4Wall crew for taking good care of us! We needed to add some extra power distro gear after the package was delivered. We called after 9pm and they answered the phone, got it on a truck, and had it to us in about an hour. Much appreciated!"

Paul Marsico, VP of Business Development at 4Wall New York, spoke of 4Wall's involvement in the highly successful event.

"It was great working with and providing ProdWorks with the gear they needed to light such a historic New York event seen by millions across the world. This event is a great way to kick start the new year and show the versatility of our rental inventory."