It takes a lot more than Disney magic to put together a TV upfront event.
Ahead of the Mouse House’s annual upfront advertiser event on May 12, ADWEEK is getting a behind-the-scenes preview of the presentation, including a look at everything from the content themes to the company’s massive set build.
And Disney isn’t holding back for this year’s event.
This is the company’s fourth year presenting in the Javits Center in New York, with 3,700 people expected to attend the event and the reception. According to Rita Ferro, Disney’s global ads president, the venue provides the company a perfect “blank canvas” to produce the show exactly how it wants.
“That show has gotten bigger and better every year, and it will be this year too, with an after-party that is able to be themed and executed across all of our brands,” Ferro said.
See Disney’s upfront event coming together below:
Looking to go bigger and better this year, Kyle Morris, vp business development at NMR Events, one of Disney’s partners in transforming the space, told ADWEEK that the company used over 300 rigging points supporting 183,000 pounds of equipment.
Morris noted that the event will have a fully integrated production architecture across audio, video, lighting, automation, AI, and content systems. Among some of the highlights, there are custom automation moving LED walls weighing 7 tons and over 40 meters of LED pixels across all displays.
“The movement of those walls is something that has never been done before from an automation standpoint,” Morris said. “Instead of them opening just horizontally, they move upstage and split our main hero wall. That creates different entry points and unique, fun ways for us to bring people on and off stage.”
In addition, the event is using a new Clear LED technology as part of the stage and the reception, which creates high-resolution imagery but also lets the audience see through the display. Morris said the tech creates depth, allowing the audience to feel closer to the content but also creating a stage that visually has “an eternity to it.”
NMR also teamed up with L-Acoustics to use its L-ISA spatial audio system to create a more immersive auditory experience. In total, there are more than 120 speaker elements in multi-dimensional configurations. In practice, that creates the ability to place, localize, and move sound throughout the room with precision.
According to Morris, it’s audio technology typically reserved for rock concerts, not corporate events.
