Hundreds of students gathered at the MAC Center on Kent State University’s (KSU) campus to cheer on their basketball team, the Golden Flashes. To enhance the excitement of this winning team, VLS created a light show that would wow the audience and build hype before the big game.
The VLS Production team is no rookie when it comes to lighting athletic events—they work nearly around the clock and most days of any given week to create lighting for special events all over the Midwest. We have provided lighting for sporting events in arenas and stadiums throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, with clients that include high schools, universities, and professional teams.
From dodgeball tournaments to figure skating to athletic awards banquets, VLS knows how to make a sporting event shine. So when the KSU Athletics and Marketing teams called on VLS to create an exciting pre-game show, we knew we were up to the challenge.
The KSU Marketing department produced a short video that would play on a kabuki drop rigged by VLS. As the event drew closer, VLS produced pre-visualization renderings and created lighting layouts and plots using Vectorworks to help the client visualize the effects, as well as keep all members of the event team on the same page. The show would open with team colors spinning throughout the arena, and then ballyhoos would precede the double kabuki drop and a speech from KSU President Beverly L. Warren. The first drop would reveal the silk curtains as the arena dimmed for the video. At the conclusion of the video, the lighting would return to ballyhoos and the kabuki curtains would drop to the floor to reveal cheerleaders and the Kent State University Mascot standing at mid-court.
