CHOC Gala 2025 (featuring Blake Shelton)
In May 2025, PCE once again had the chance to produce the annual CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County) Gala, an event that raises millions of dollars for the hospital's life saving children's medical work. This massive event includes a cocktail hour, dinner, charity auction, and a night-capping musical performance—this year's featured county music legend Blake Shelton!
The 2025 CHOC Gala marked our first deployment of the Apex 5040 Mobile Stage, a massive, festival-size stage trailer that served as the focal point for the event. We augmented this behemoth (deployed in "beast mode") with Steeldeck extensions to create a loading dock and increase the stage's overall area. We also rigged up numerous lighting fixtures, including Martin MAC Aura PXL, Elation Proteus Maximus, Elation DTW Blinder 700, Elation Proteus Excalibur, and Chauvet Color STRIKE M lights. A PCE lighting designer ran the show from a grandMA3 Full-Size console. Behind the front-of-house area, three follow spot operators used Canto Aurora A1 follow spots from atop Genie lifts to illuminate the action on stage.
PCE lit up more than just the stage, though. Numerous other areas throughout the event space featured additional lighting, including Chauvet Rogue Outcast 2X Wash and Chauvet COLORado Batten 72 fixtures above the entrance arches. A lounge just inside the event space made use of Chauvet Strike Array 4 lights, Samsung OH55F Daylight-Bright LED Monitors, and InfiLED 3.9 LED video walls.
Speaking of video tech, the main stage included three massive video walls of its own: two Absen C7 video walls on either side and an Absen AT5 upstage. These displayed prerecorded content as well as a live video feed, captured with Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 and Panasonic AW-UE70 PTZ cameras. At the nearby video village, video directors/engineers conducted the show using Blackmagic ATEM 2M/E with a Blackmagic ATEM 1M/E Advanced Panel.
The audio setup included four JBL VTX line arrays and a Yamaha CL5 audio console. The PCE team communicated during the show using the Hollyland Solidcom M1 system.