CINCINNATI — When the lights turn on for BLINK after a three-year hiatus, it will be one of the largest and most involved productions that New York-based PRG puts on across the country this year.
It took 13 semi-trucks to load all the projectors, lights, cables and gear into the basement of Great American Ball Park before they could be separated and sent to each of 32 installation sites across Cincinnati and Covington.
"This is very likely the largest number of projectors we have out on a given project at one time in the year," said senior production manager Matt Hohmann.
It's Hohmann's first BLINK work experience — and he was warned.
"They told me to get ready," he said. "The scale of this job is unlike jobs that I traditionally do."
Hohmann's job is to manage all the logistics of dozens of staff, freelance and union techs building scaffolding and setting up lights and cables across the five BLINK zones this year. PRG is no stranger to huge projects, lighting and projecting on Broadway, at Coachella, The Grammys and corporate and trade shows around the world.
"It's much like chess. We need to have our eye on the next seven or eight moves and, if we don't, we're going to have a bad time," Hohmann said.
One of those sites is on the plaza next to what will become the Black Music Walk of Fame in front of the Andrew J Brady Center. The theme there is a "Golden Garden," with dozens of lights, changing in sequence.
University of Cincinnati alumnus David Seitz is in charge of the lighting installations at The Banks — more than 150 large lights in that zone alone. Seitz graduated from CCM in 2013, a theatrical lighting major, drawn to the college by its reputation.
"Coming back every two to three years has been incredible to see what they've done further," he said. "This pavilion, all of this stuff down here on The Banks is new and cool."
Seitz has worked all three BLINK festivals as a lighting designer. He said setup takes days and programming can be done as quickly as 45 minutes with several overnights' worth of fine-tuning.
"Basically we can choose any sort of light out here and can choose what color, what shape, what movement it has," Seitz said.
At this festival, lighting technology has changed in a way to allow all the lights in the Golden Garden to operate in most types of weather. In some cases, the lights used at this year's BLINK are state-of-the-art, being used for the first time.
"These are brand new LED light engine fixtures that we are launch partners with Vari-Lite on and this is the first show that we're launching them on," said Frank Roggio, PRG's director of solutions engineering.
Roggio is also hustling through the hundreds of now-empty cases in the tunnels underneath the ballpark. He was in the original PRG group that met with BLINK's founders about the wild idea that has turned into the nation's largest immersive art and light festival.
Once scaffolds, lights and projectors are set and calibrated, the job changes to maintenance and monitoring.
"We run around and turn all of the projectors and lights on, get the media servers going so the art is up on the buildings. And then we wait for it to get dark," Roggio said. "As soon as it's dark enough for us to see, we go back out and make sure everything is the way it's supposed to be. And then, for the most part, our crew goes out and enjoys Cincinnati."
It's a chance to show off the region, its historic architecture, burgeoning food scene and more for all the people who put it together and for the more than 1 million people expected over the four days.
"For a lot of people, this is their first taste and first glimpse into what the downtown has to offer," Seitz said. "And I think using that opportunity to show that off is incredibly smart."
The admiration of their work will be short-lived. PRG has to get all the lights, projectors, cables and structures torn down in two days so they can be moved on to the next project.
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