PRG, lighting designer Paul Palazzo, and producer Joe Venturella of i4D Event Services, Inc., worked together at software giant SAP’s Sapphire 2007 Atlanta annual meeting April 22–25 at the Georgia World Congress Center.

“With our experience, depth of inventory and specialty products like the Series 400™ Power and Data Distribution System, PRG is uniquely positioned to put a system together for a large venue like the World Congress Center,” notes Martee Nuruddin, vice president, client services, PRG Orlando.

Featuring a large keynote theatre, 17 smaller theatre spaces, and a trade show floor with more than 300 exhibitors, the SAP event required precise coordination of a huge volume of equipment throughout the hall.

Lead programmer Paul Sonnleitner of Control Etc. specified a fiber optic system using PRG’s proprietary Series 400 10-Port Ethernet Switches to create a single, highly reliable system and to network DMX consoles. “It was a system designer’s dream,” says Sonnleitner.

During set up, Sonnleitner and production electrician Chris Szabo needed just four of the Series 400 10-Port Ethernet Switches to link the master lighting control console at the far end of the hall to a second console that he repositioned throughout the venue to focus the lights. The fiber network enabled easy and stable connections of 800’ to 1,500’.

Designed by PRG’s Dallas-based research and development team in response to client needs, the Series 400 10-Port Ethernet Switch also makes it possible for the PRG fiber network to be used with any console. “The switch and fiber optic network greatly expand what I can do,” says Sonnleitner. “This solution makes the whole system easier to work with, more reliable, and more cost effective because it takes so much less labor to install.”

PRG also supplied Sapphire 2007 Atlanta with 2,200 Source Four^® fixtures, 250 automated luminaires, 450 chain hoists and control, and 850 pieces of 10’ 12” truss and control. Lighting equipment was shipped on 14 trailers from PRG’s Orlando depot.

PRG’s production team worked under the direction of lighting designer Paul Palazzo. Kish Rigging of Simi Valley, CA was the rigging contractor for the show, headed by J.R. Cassidy, head rigger.