SAN ANTONIO – Visitors to February’s San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, were awed by the balance and dexterity of the cowboys and cowgirls who roped and rode on the arena floor. But the heroics of these athletes weren’t the only jaw-dropping impressive feats that took place at the spacious Frost Bank Center during the three-week event.

David Jackson of LD Systems and his crew did some pretty amazing things too. Every day, they set up and closed down a 40-foot wide by 34-foot-deep stage during the rodeo, while also accommodating floor packages for its star entertainers, a group that included Nelly, Keith Urban, Jon Pardi, Joe Nichols, the Eli Young Band, LeAnn Rimes, Sammy Hagar and Dwight Yoakam among others.

“For our crew, the challenges of working within the limited time windows to maintain the rig had to be addressed,” said Jackson, who served as lighting lead and programmer for the rodeo, which drew about 1.5 million visitors. “The artists have their time on the stage, and once they’re off, we’re able to bring in the rig for fixture swop outs. Typically, we will be ready to move as soon as the stage is out of the arena so that we are not holding up the livestock or dirt crew from leveling and setting up the arena for that night’s performance.”

When moving the big stage off the arena floor, Jackson, and his team “strike everything to the middle,” of their rig and fold it up to a 40-feet by 14-feet structure. This was as big as they could have the folded stage measure, while still getting it into its storage area during the rodeo. Visiting floor package fixtures along with the house rig featuring CHAUVET Professional Maverick Storm 3 Beam Washes and Color STRIKE M motorized wash-strobes had to fit into this fold.

As challenging as pulling this kind of logistical magic is multiple times during the rodeo, it didn’t quite equal what was involved in coaching some visiting LDs on how to run their shows on a 360-stage smack dab in the middle of a 19,000-seat arena.

“Our biggest challenge with being in-the-round was handing off the rig to LDs who have never experienced doing a show on this kind of stage,” said Jackson, who ran shows himself for acts that don’t bring their own LDs. “We worked well with the visiting LDs and assist them as much as we can with big position looks and advised them how to eliminate all the ‘specials’ for the individual musicians.”

Taken from LD Systems’ own inventory, the Color STRIKE M and Maverick Storm 3 BeamWash fixtures in Jackson’s rig played a key role in helping him meet the challenges of lighting the rodeo. The 18 Color STRIKE units were run nine apiece on two house trusses and excelled at audience lighting.

As for the Maverick Storm 3 BeamWashes, Jackson called it them rodeo’s “main wash.” He flew five of these units on each side of the 50-foot squared truss structure over the stage. From this position, the Mavericks provided visiting LDs with a range of creative options, allowing them to light their clients from any angle. Visiting LDs also used the RGBW washes to cover the stage in a rainbow of hues to reflect the music and personality of each artist, while the fixture’s wide zoom range made it simple to change coverage areas on the stage.

“The Storm 3 BeamWashes were so bright that we had to limit them down not get cameras blown out,” said Jackson, who notes that he and his team (stage manager, Aaron Canady; and project manager, Tony Carey; as well as lighting assistants Joe Redd, Martha Zatorski, Aurora Bauer, and Brian Ledet) also appreciated how the fixtures performed as beams to pump up the crowd during the rodeo’s special openings.

Jackson particularly liked how the Maverick fixtures and the rest of the rig worked with the house lights to make the start of each show sparkle. “Every night when we took the house lights out for start of show, we fired up the rig to build excitement,” he said. “We actually ended the build up with a Texas flag made from the lights on the dirt that always got a great reaction.

“Another of my favorites was in the opening sequence when the lights swelled up with the chorus from the video,” continued Jackson. “So many people came up and told me that part gave them chills.”

Getting the chills from lighting? Yes! As David Jackson will tell you, not every thrilling moment at the rodeo comes bull riding and bronco busting. Creating stunning effects with a well-chosen lighting rig, can generate some pretty big excitement too!