aXis Pro celebrated the holidaze with Mobile Stage Rentals, Church Services, LED Lighting Displays, Driving Range Concerts & Singing Penguins!
Holidays can be tough on stage rental, lightingl and audio production companies to say the least. Having mobile stages pulled in a dozen directions on St Paddy's, Cinco De Mayo, the 4th of July, Halloween and NYE can be trying on your back, audio gear and sleep schedule, but the actual 'Holiday Season' justifies it on many levels. The team at aXisPro Events is used to not seeing much of the family on these celebrated dates of the calendar, but we also take so some pride in being part of many other families in the Tri-County area. For many years we have helped to light Christmas trees and 'Light Up' City Halls and Downtown Parades from Celebration to Clermont, from Winter Garden to Winter Springs, from Lake Nona to Deltona, from Downtown Kissimmee to Downtown Sanford... and many more.
This year was no different. Well, maybe a little different! Many municipalities understandably were forced to scale back their holiday events due to Covid-19 restriction in their communities. However, aXisPro had a chance to support and experience socially distanced holiday traditions at many new venues, churches and schools. Here's some examples of the season...
'Oh What Fun!' A Holiday Festival!
Lake Nona • Town Center
Dec 3rd - Dec 27th (various dates)
Lake Nona boasts one of the more tech savvy and forward thinking Town Center's in Florida... and possibly the country. Having produced the themed celebration for the past few years on property, they were tasked with not only shifting it into the more traffic heavy Town Center, but also adhering to Covid-19 restrictions for the performers, staff and guests. Lake Nona Event Manager Justin Nickerson had a vision, with an inclusive experiential activation for children, families, show enthusiasts and diners alike.
Accommodating the safety protocols, while maintaining holiday aesthetics, he developed a 'pod concept' for the performers, offering the vocalists and actors their own 'Christmas Present' platform to guarantee distance from the audience and one another. We outfitted each platform with a QSC K12.2 monitor, providing the vocalists with Sennheiser 945 Handhelds and G4 EW500 packs, subverting the extremely congested RF frequencies in proximity to Orlando International Airport, and the various Medical facilities surrounding the Town Center. For the actors, which included animated Elves, and boisterous Santas, we strapped on Shure ULXD1 Wireless Bodypacks with Countryman E6 headsets. The performers rocked three sets each per night, braving the cold, as well as some nice faux snow for the climactic song each set!
Performing Santas and Elves, some of the top vocalists on hiatus from the theme parks rocking the standards, faux snow, a skating rink and hot chocolate bombs would all combine to be quite the activation at most locations... but in Town Center it wasn't complete without a giant talking penguin! Peppermint, the 40 foot tall penguin, with a touch of sarcasm and holiday wit, stole the show nightly, taking the stage on the famous Lake Nona Beacon. With a live performer handling the vocals from the control room center just 100 yards away, Peppermint was able to interact with the live show on cue. The Performers/Vocalists were mixed with a Behringer x32 sidestage, with 300ft of XLR lines out to the control room acting as a monitor feed, along with 300ft of SDI out of a live stream camera acting as a video feed. In between the performances, Peppermint would interact with kids stepping up to the platform, for informal Q&A's, in Wizard of Oz fashion. Our lead tech Tim Schuler, fresh off graduation at Rosen College of Hospitality was up to the challenge of managing 10 actors and singers and a performing penguin on a nightly basis.
Lake Nona Town Center's 'Oh What Fun!' was one of the more active activations of our holiday season, but was very rewarding in the amount of social media posts and praise from the families that attended and participated in the one of a kind experience. Looking forward to see what vision the Justin and the team at Lake Nona develop for 2021!
Celebration Holiday Concert
Celebration Athletic Complex
Dec 3rd
Celebration City Hall has been one of the more proactive communities in providing safe entertainment and experience for their residents. Having the luxury of the beautiful new astro turf covered soccer/lacrosse fields at their disposal, J.R. Rupp and team have developed a safe, comfortable concert venue that sits 600 plus via round tops, banquet tables and bring your own lawn chair set ups. They enlisted the aXisPro Stageline SL100 with deck extensions to offer a 40ft front facade, with fully branded 4 piece scrim package. The audio rig was flown with four QSC KLA12 2 Way line arrays per side, with two KLA middle fills sitting on the four QSC 218 subs. Mixing on the Behringer x32, our lead techs Matt Verduin and Bobby Cevetello have the flexibility of roaming between the tables with the iPad. Being able to check monitors sidestage and quickly move from left to right out in front of house has proven pivotal in such a large footprint, with a diverse line up of performers and instrumentation. Knowing that the patrons at the bar half a football field to stage right are hearing the same mix that the patrons sitting in a semi circle of lawn chairs a dozen feet from the line array to stage left, is key to presenting a warm sound from front to back in a spaced out venue this size.
Their Fall Festival was a huge success with the Kenny Chesney Tribute, along with Off Kilter. Followed by their annual Founders Day featuring Otown Motown rocking the hits. The Holiday Concert kept with presenting an eclectic line up of performers spanning genres and generations with the opera worthy Franco Corso doing traditional holiday songs and operatic standards. Local Gary Lovini opened with an energetic set of rock and pop hits on the violin. The venue is perfect for safely spaced outdoor events, in a corporate or festival setting, and from what we here is available for outside rental (parking included).
Windy Hill Middle School Holiday Concert
Windy Hill Middle School Clermont
Dec 15th & 16th
One of the highlights of being the preferred event company for many of the Cities and Communities in the tri-county area, is that we get to support their holiday events, which usually feature the local students performing in choirs and bands for their families and friends. Nothing gets you in the holiday spirit like lighting up a Christmas stage while the students rock 'Silent Night!'
Choir Director Michael Tarquine had a socially distanced venue set up utilizing Windy Hill Middle Schools middle atrium/amphitheatre. With spacing for the choir and band, and enough grass seating for over 150 parents nightly, they had everything covered except the lighting. The original goal was the wash a 60x40 area to cover the singers three rows deep, and the full band in a semi circle behind them, staggered across the concrete steps. But with Christmas trees already set up, we felt the need to add some holiday charm to the venue.
Utilizing 4 LED Par Bar Trees, with two in the center and one to stage left and one to stage right, the area was well washed in bright white. So as not to lose the vibe, and wash out the Xmas trees, we added uplighting with 16 pars placed across the back floor, DMX'ed to a slow rotation of red and green up the walls. This is a similar display we have used to 'Light Up' Clermont City Hall for their annual weekend festivities the past few years.
The first night of two went great, with socially distanced families filling the area safely to capacity, and a new set of families coming in for the second night. However, Mother Nature had other plans. So the aXisPro team quickly called an audible with the Principal and Music Directors, and split the lighting into two venues, with the Choir occupying the spacious Gym and the band taking over the cafeteria/amphitheatre. The lighting complimented both rooms, and set the tone for another great night celebrating a socially distanced holiday!
Cypress Lakes Holiday Drive In Concert
Cypress Lakes Community Driving Range
Dec 5th
The audio team at Westberry Music Group based out of the Winter Haven area, called on aXisPro to facilitate their staging for a one of a kind holiday event. Cypress Lakes Community turned the Drive In Concert concept into the Driving Range Concert concept with their holiday show on Saturday, December 5th. We set up the Marshall Austin MAP24 mobile stage, with 24x16 footprint and a basic white wash of 8 pars across the front and 12 red/green holiday accent lighting across the back, on the front of the Driving Range, allowing for over 150 golf carts to position with a safe distance and a great view. Tom and the crew at Westberry helped book the Atlantic City Boys to perform a range of oldies hits for the audience, which flashed their lights and honked their golf cart horns with enthusiasm after each song.
Chabad of South Orlando Chanukah Concert
Rosen Jewish Community Center
Dec 13th
This marked our third year working with the Chabad of South Orlando to help celebrate Chanukah at various venues. Last year we assisted with the Marshall Austin MAP24 Stage rental for their takeover of the Orlando Magic pregame festivities on Church Street prior to lighting the Menorah at halftime.
This year, due to Covid-19 restrictions, they took it on the road, with a Chanukah Grand Parade & Drive In Festival culminating at the Rosen Jewish Center on Apopka Vineland. We assisted with the stage again, enlisting the 24x16 mobile unit, to compliment their in house audio team for a 3 piece rock concert just before the lighting.
Majestic Life Church Christmas Service
Majestic Life Church • Kirkman
Dec 20th
The aXisPro team has had the pleasure of working with Pastor Chauncey and family at Majestic Life Church on Kirkman Blvd for the past few months. They were one of the more proactive churches to move to outdoor socially distanced events, with their Drive In and Live Streamed Services. Utilizing both the Stageline SL100 and the Marshall Austin MAP24, they have worked with the 24x20 and 24x16 footprints to accommodate a full band, choir and Pastor pulpit for each service. They also have coined the clever phrase of "The Church Has Left The Building!"
Working with the team at Audio Don Sound Enterprises, we have added deck extensions at 4x4 for the MAP24 Stage and 4x8 for the Stageline SL100 to better fit the stacked Line Array. They also take advantage of the Facebook Livestream to mix an online version that witnesses thousands of views weekly.
Rejoice in the Lord Ministries Christmas Service
Rejoice in the Lord Ministries • Apopka
Dec 20th
The aXisPro team had a blast rocking the Rejoice in the Lord Ministries Drive In Holiday Service on Sunday, Dec 20th. Music Director Kirk Russell reached out with the request for the Stageline SL100 to accommodate the band, choir and Pastor, while also providing two LED walls for the spread out parking lot. Reaching more than a football field deep and wide, over 150 cars socially distanced to capacity for the beautiful service. Kirk and band put on an amazing show that featured vocalists from Universal Studios shows (our A1 tech Tim Schuler's side gig), so the mix was dialed in and rocking the area, the FM radio and Facebook Livestream within minutes.
We utilized the QSC KLA12 Line Array with four boxes per side, and two middle fills stacked on the four QSC 218 subs, with the QSC K12.2 monitors. This was more than ample audio to cover the space, but also made for steady coverage at a low audio level for the neighboring community.
Props to Brandon and team at OPAV, for providing great rates on the 14x8 mobile LED walls, and making sure the Majestic team had ample cabling and power, and synced the screens for the early morning service.