Maxedia and “America’s Most Talented Kids”

California lighting designer and CEO of Team Imagination, Inc., Michael Veerkamp, oversees the set of PAX Networks' "America's Most Talented Kids" (AMTK) television variety show, owned by NBC. Filmed in Los Angeles at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, the second taping cycle of the show’s second season took place in December.

Michael was responsible for stage lighting and special effects and employed Martin’s Maxedia Digital Media Composer to help achieve the desired looks. He explains, “For two weeks during December I used one of these units to drive the multiple projection screens for America’s Most Talented Kids. I’m new to the world of adding projections into my bag of tricks, but I have to tell you now, I’m pitching it to every producer that will listen.”

Michael has incorporated Martin gear into a number of television productions in the past. On AMTK, besides utilizing the Maxedia, he used 120 MAC’s – a mix of MAC 550’s and MAC 2000 Wash, Profile and Performance along with other intelligent lights, PAR’s, Lekos, followspots and fog machines, all run from a Martin Maxxyz lighting console. Lighting supplier was Cinelease, Inc.

Although the crew shot three shows per day with seven performances per show, Michael never repeated a look. He made sure that each contestant got a special mix of colors and graphics, which meant up to 20 new programmable looks a day. “It’s a very tight schedule,” Michael explains, “yet very successful. We’d look at audition tape and then program the looks the next morning. At sound check we’d have a chance to tweak the looks a bit, and then came rehearsal, then the show.”

With a demanding taping schedule, there was no room for system failure - especially on a production where one taping day costs approximately a quarter-million dollars. What impressed Network and the show’s executive producers the most, Michael explains, was the Maxedia’s ability to change videos on cue, at a dramatic cost savings over previous methods. Using the Maxedia helped him cut his dependence on the control truck, where technicians are busy with live camera work.

“The Maxedia comes with a stock library of probably a hundred or so images, and we added in another 40 video clips,” Michael says. “Within the program, you can go on to manipulate those images in uncountable ways. Then Maxedia is controlled seamlessly from the Martin Maxxyz lighting console - which we had two running in tandem to keep up with the demands of the show. The ability to change projection images, within and in perfect sync with the lighting cues was awesome.

“We designed up to 21 separate and different performances for each tape day, and the production value that Maxedia added was unbelievable. And what made my line producer happy was that it was done without a separate operator and hours of video truck time loading in the packages, and frankly at a very cost effective price.

“We really put it through an acid test. What I most appreciated is that we ran this unit for, on average, 14 hours a day over 11 days and it never once failed, locked up, or even hiccupped! It worked flawlessly.

“I cannot begin to explain to you how this unit blew the socks off of my client - Production Company Mindless Entertainment and NBC Entertainment - and our network representatives. Without it, the show would not have attained the look and production value that we were able to deliver, and I wouldn’t be the hero that I was for the show.”

A Martin Maxxyz performed lighting and video control with board programming by Ed Motts and Danny Zacharias. “We’ve fallen in love with the console,” Michael says. “I’m impressed. There were no hiccups the entire show. The ability of the consoles to run next to each other was great, but the biggest thing is the support – Michael Nevitt and Matthias Hinrichs took care of us. It’s important to keep the show going as each day costs hundreds of thousand of dollars, so everything has to run. The producers were floored by the savings with the Martin lights and Maxedia.”