LOS ANGELES – Rock Never Dies…apparently it also never really ages! The 40th edition of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Awards ceremony reminded millions of television viewers of that, not only in terms of its electrifying music, celebrating rule breakers like inductees Cyndi Lauper and Outkast, but also with its bold new, more immersive production.

Held at the Peacock Theatre November 8th, the star-studded ceremony turned 40 with some fresh original twists that created more 3D looks on stage. Discussing the new visuals, lighting designer Allen Branton noted: “We added more layers behind the vanish screens and enriched the balcony rail arrays for a rich reverse shot.”

Key to the revamped looks was the change in the video wall configuration for this year’s event. Rather than being anchored by one large video screen, this year’s design used smaller screens, more like individual set pieces. This contributed to the more immersive environment on stage.

“This year we moved away from the dominant flat backgrounds and instead used video as a layered element that blended with lighting, complementing the negative space with the lighting design behind and in front of the screens to create a unified, immersive composition,” said video screen content designer Bianca Moncada of Darmah. “For the main show look, we integrated smaller, three-dimensional video elements as virtual scenic pieces that matched the real lighting, so it feels as if physical light is affecting the digital world.”

Directing light through the very transparent video panels also contributed to the depth and unified look of the stage. “Letting light interacts with the content and making the stage read as one continuous world with realistic depth and dimension was critically important to this design,” said Branton.

A collection of 72 Color STRIKE M motorized strobe washes, 58 STRIKE 1 units, and 22 COLORdash Accent washes added to the impact of lighting as it interacted with the set’s video element. “This is a story of strobes and point sources,” said Branton. Both are essential to our approach — melt down violence on the one hand, and subtle definition of space on the other.”

Elaborating on the latter point, Branton singled out his rig’s COLORdash units. “I believe this fixture when carefully place leads the cameraman to a certain composition,” he said.

The production team, which in addition to Branton and Moncada, included lighting directors Felix Peralta, Kevin Lawson, and George Gountas; gaffers Alejandro Flores and Mikey Smallman; Best Boys Russ Keitel, Adam Hagin, and Matthew Weede, along with Liberty Bock, on operations, served up one memorable look after the other during the three-hour broadcast.

There were many of these special moments during the program. Among the most stunning was during Cyndi Lauper’s performance when a transcendent rainbow appeared behind the singer and transformed the entire stage. “The idea was to make the rainbow visuals feel as if they were controlled by the singer’s natural movement,” said Moncada. “We treated these graphics as floating, flowing light energy, using transparency and soft glows. Against a black background, the colors drifted and moved with her, becoming an extension of her performance, rather than just a solid backdrop.”

The ephemeral rainbow visuals were indeed bold, new and different… one of the many flights of creativity that kept this show young and vibrant at 40.