Below is a picture of what it looked like for the athletes as they exited the tunnel into Wells Fargo Arena.
The image was created by freezing a fog and condensing it forcing it fall. The fog fell in front of a black nylon tunnel that was used to help not only hold the fog in, but ambient light from the arena out. Then using a projector on the front side we projected the image onto fog as it fell. What you see is the generic image of the Des Moines logo. Each athlete, as they entered, had their name and school logo on the fog.
The next picture was taken during rehearsal on Saturday afternoon just before the Championship rounds. What you see here is some custom lighting cues that were created through our dmx controller. We set the Arena sport lights to blackout, and the led scoring panels to go black, while turning on directed spot bulbs underneath the main scoreboard that were custom targeted and focused for the height and dimensions of the championship stage. This scene was used during each wrestler's introduction as well as during the parade of All-Americans.
The next picture was taken at the beginning of the program just before the Parade of All-Americans, and ran as the front page cover of the Sunday Des Moines Register.
Finally, embedded below is a video that was uploaded to YouTube showing the introductions during the final match of the 2013 NCAA Championships. In the video you will also see CO2 jets that were placed along the walkway and were fired in succession as the wrestlers passed. There were also eight more jets placed in the corners of the mats that fired as the winning wrestlers hand was raised . To see how it looked on ESPN, click here or watch the open on ESPN below.
