Nexus Productions, a successful technical production and design practice based in Denver, Colorado, services more than 200 live events each year. It has established a reputation for creating the visual energy for shows including live music, electronic dance events and DJ sets, both static and touring, in everything from smaller venues to amphitheaters, arenas and stadiums across North America. CAST spoke to video and lighting designer Chuck Williams about Wysiwyg’s place in the Nexus toolkit . . .
History with Wysiwyg:
“I’ve been using Wysiwyg for about four years now. I used the downtime during Covid to sign up for the full course, to get certified on it, since I had so much of it! That was very helpful for me, it allowed me to get my bearings on how the software could work fully to our needs. Now, it’s the backbone of nearly every one of the 200-plus shows we do a year here at Nexus. It seems crazy to me now that we used to do so many events without it.”
“There are two of us designing shows at here at Nexus – myself and Brad Wilson. We currently use both Perform and Design Wysiwyg licenses. We mostly use the Design feature set, but it’s always great to have the Perform Live feature when I need previs.”
The Design Process:
“We try to keep the workflow as streamlined as possible. We have a few ‘Base’ files that we use, loaded with the fixtures we own and a few other common pieces that we tend to use a lot – custom decks, Cheeseborough clamps, panel ground-stack frames etc. We tend to work at a lot of the same venues in town, so we have each of the rooms built out to spec within Wysiwyg. This allows us to work accurately when a client comes to us with ideas.”
“Once we have the rig designed, I make a few 4K renders and send it over to the client. Once we have approval from the client, we use our template ‘layouts’ and build a tech pack for the shop team to start prep. We’ll patch/fixture ID the LX rig in Wysiwyg, and then I have a third-party software to export a CSV into GrandMA2 console for easy patching with 3D info on the fixtures. Depending on the show size we will do full routing plots for signal flow, power schedule and rigging plots. From start to finish, Wysiwyg will handle almost every detail for us.”
How does it save time?
“It saves time EVERYWHERE! If you don’t have a software tool like Wysiwyg keeping track of weights, lengths, quantities, power consumption, angles, placements etc – it’s nearly impossible to wrangle all the details on anything larger than a small event. You can’t keep track of all the nuanced details of a large-format show without something like Wysiwyg.”
How does it increase efficiency?
“It allows one person drafting the rig to turn in a plethora of details without needing multiple meetings to discuss the design of an event. It allows us quick changes when needed, and gives us an easy avenue to always be creative and hash out any new ideas we may have.”
Standout Features:
“This is tough, because so many of them are vital! Paperwork (layouts, plots) and patching are so very crucial for our day-to-day work, but equally every other aspect is just as vital. The software as a whole is absolutely key for show design.”
Console integration:
“We use GrandMA2 control for all our events. GrandMA and wysiwyg obviously have a great relationship and using both together for programming tours has always been smooth for us. My favorite feature with GrandMA2 and wysiwyg is the fact that we don’t need parameters to output digitally.”
“An example – I designed a show for Illenium at the SoFi Stadium. I had quite a few songs of timecode to update and when we got onsite, we had a rack of NPUs (Network Processing Units) needed for the show. I had a total of 136 universes. We discovered that the NPUs are not needed to previs, which made our build a lot more streamlined – we were able to leave the NPUs on deck for the stage crew to test the rig as it went up.”
Cost considerations:
“Cost is always a factor. It was definitely tough to justify the initial purchase of the live license for us, but once we started pushing out designs quickly and understanding the how the software was saving us so much time – while keeping track of all the details – it was a no-brainer! I personally love having an all-in-one solution. It saves me the time I’d need to spend if I had to learn another software proficiently, and any changes I make in Wysiwyg are then instantly live for previs.”
Wysiwyg as a sales tool:
“We use Wysiwyg renders to sell shows all the time – and I use Wysiwyg Perform for programming all our tours. I’ve had great success programming with Wysiwyg and would absolutely say it was very accurate to the real-world outcome on stage.”
Learning curve:
“Wysiwyg was straightforward and made sense for my preferred learning type. The classes help immensely and when I became fully certified I felt my skillset jump way ahead of where I was in a matter of weeks.”