In early 1998 Skylands Professional Audio received a call from Josh Cutler at the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in Washington, NJ asking if we would be interested in providing sound to a teaching by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama at the center. Naturally we jumped at the chance to just be in the presence of the Dalai Lama who was already a Nobel Laureate and one of the most admired spiritual leaders in the world. What we experienced that May afternoon was a life-changing encounter with a self-described "simple Buddhist monk" whose inspirational and enlightening words transcended all barriers built by religion, politics, race, gender, et al.

During the ensuing years, we would regularly run into Josh & his wife Diana at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. They would always remind us that one day His Holiness would return to teach in our area and that Skylands would once again have an opportunity to provide sound. Then, in early 2007, the call finally came that the Dalai Lama would be coming to teach at Lehigh University's Stabler Arena and Skylands Professional Audio would be charged with all aspects of the technical production for these historic teaching. The 2008 teachings, however, would not be as simple and straightforward as that 1998 teaching at the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center.

The Lehigh teachings required converting a large brightly lit sports arena into a comfortable and intimate setting for an extended series of teachings over the course of six entire days. Skylands called upon our colleague and friend T. J. Essig to create a flexible lighting design to light the stage for video and provide soft ambient light to the entire seating area. T. J.'s design included a 60' x 90' rectangular truss over the center of the arena and a 130' W upstage truss to hold drapery, video screens, the Buddhist Thangkha and other decorative pieces. A separate 60' upstage truss was used exclusively for lighting. Twenty-five 1-ton motors were used for the hangs.

In order to bring His Holiness' image "up close and personal", two 15' x 20' rear projection IMAG screens were flown behind the stage. The screens were enclosed within a 130'W x 40'H  black velour drape tied off to a hinged upstage truss lifted by five 1-ton motors. Each screen was elevated via its own 1/4 ton motor. This enabled the screens to be adjusted up and down independent of the large drape truss. The IMAG video image was presented in 16:9 aspect ratio leaving the bottom 1/3rd of the video screens available for insertion of open captioning of His Holiness' teachings. Screen-in-screen capability allowed simultaneous views of His Holiness and his translator.

The teachings demanded complete, articulate sound coverage to nearly 5000 seats in a reverberant arena full of hard reflective surfaces. Skylands' EAW KF730 compact line array provided the perfect solution. Two (2) primary arrays of eight (8) KF730s each provided coverage to the bulk of the arena seats while two (2) outfill arrays of four (4) KF730s each provided coverage to the stage left/right seating areas. EAW LA212 multi-purpose loudspeakers served as downstage fill to the areas immediately below the coverage zone of the flown KF730s. Stage monitoring was provided through six (6) OAP Audio SM-281 low profile monitors on four independent mixes.

Further discussion about the IMAG video possibilities led to the decision to upgrade to a four camera high-definition video shoot.  The multi-camera shoot provided an interesting variety of shot angles and allowed for insertion of sceen-in-screen images. The choice of Hi-Def video provided state-of-the-art video capture for archival purposes and possible development of a documentary film. Special thanks to Gary Snyder of Clark Media for supplying the HD fly packs and superb tech support throughout the teachings. 

This page is still under construction. More text and photos coming soon.