San Jose, CA- Facebook's annual developer conference, F8, is their largest meeting of the year. F8 showcases new technology and features two days of keynotes from the social network's leaders like CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Event producer FNTECH and executive producer Jeremy Muir chose Seeing Eye Lighting Design and Principal Lighting Designer Paul Efron to light the event utilizing gear from 4Wall Los Angeles.

This included a General Session at the San Jose Civic Auditorium, a massive expo floor, multiple breakout sessions, exterior lighting of the convention center, and an assortment of other smaller environments and activations.

In years past, F8 was held at the now demolished Concourse Exposition, and then at Fort Mason along side the San Francisco Bay. Due to the growth of the conference, and Pier Two at Fort Mason being unavailable, Facebook relocated the event 40 miles south to the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.

This move was a departure from the more industrial and edgy venues preferred in the past to a more traditional convention center type of venue and auditorium.

Mark Gilmore acted as Efron's lighting director for the General Session and programming was performed by Benny Kirkham.

The General Session was lit with a combination of Martin MAC Viper Wash DX's, Martin MAC Auras, and Ayrton MagicDots provided by 4Wall.

"The DX's worked really well for stage lighting giving lots of color temperature flexibility, a soft edge without using frost, and plenty of spill control using their internal barn door feature," explained Efron. "We really liked them."

The Auras provided both color controllable house lights and architectural accents. The MagicDots were hung to conform as point sources and tie in with the curved elements of the scenery.

The scenery itself was treated with engaging and immersive projection mapping designed and provided by Scott Riley of Pure Dezign, Rod Mclaughlin was the programmer.  

It all tied in beautifully and truly transformed the venue typically used for concert events into an entirely different space, look and feel.

Chis Legrand acted as Lighting Director for the expo space and faced some challenges dealing with the venue.

"The piers had a lot of character that would provide a unique ambiance from which a design could draw inspiration and mood," explained Legrand. "The convention center is a very traditional "black box" space where our main challenge was to create interest and motion while dealing with white drop ceilings and concrete walls."

The LD chose to focus only on the client activations, downplay the venue, and provide a dynamic background of 960' of pixel mapped 24' black velour down lit by over 200 Chroma-Q Color Force II LED battens.

"The Color Force II units are nothing less than the next evolution in LED strip lighting," said the LD. "The ability to light 24' of black velour with a single line of Color Force units gave us incredible color saturation and contrast."

Legrand continued, "Each fixture was carefully chosen for its role in the event. MAC Aura XB units provided the extra punch for small area washes that was key to attendee engagement," explained the LD. "The XB's big brother, the MAC Quantum Wash was the only element designed to be seen and felt directly in the space. It played the role of large moons scattered throughout the expo between the activation booths."

A TV/Film lighting package was also in order for the conference. 4Wall LA provided Kino Flo Celeb 201s and Arri SkyPanels to provide smooth and even illumination for the VR green screen activations booth for the client.

"Easily selectable color temperature and light output saved time on installation and focus," said Efron. "The client was able to concentrate on their content and not the lighting technology."

For more information on Seeing Eye Lighting Design, visit www.se-ld.com and on Facebook.