When your company is handling all the technical and managerial aspects of three back-to-back outdoor concerts for Rolling Stone in New York City in November, the weather is very much on your mind.
So it was “a huge stress reliever” for Or Israel, President of ATD Audio Visual in Bronx, New York, to utilize ClimaCell, a web-based weather intelligence platform that shows users how weather will impact their business so they can optimize operational plans in advance.
Used by aviation, agriculture, the automotive industry, railroads, port operations, sports and more, ClimaCell has a strong following across myriad markets. Now, the AV production space is discovering the benefits ClimaCell brings to businesses working on live outdoor events and location shoots. Based on the customer’s decisioning logic, ClimaCell automatically produces business insights and action plans calibrated to the ever-changing, minute-by-minute forecast.
“Although we have been used for outdoor events such as music festivals, ATD was our first AV production customer – and a very exciting one,” said Gene Dolgin, Vice President and General Manager of ClimaCell’s SMB Unit. “Or realized the value that weather intelligence can provide to his industry in a simple and intuitive way. He was able to use ClimaCell functionally and easily and be in full communication with his client regarding the weather, which really impressed them.”
ATD was responsible for producing three live rooftop concerts for Rolling Stone on the same night in three New York City boroughs. The must-see musical event featured rooftop-based sets by Washington, D.C.-area rapper Oddisee in Brooklyn followed by multi-platinum and award-winning recording artist Elle King in Queens and concluding with the ever popular Cold War Kids in Manhattan. The 16-20 minute concerts were hosted by SNL’s Chloe Fineman and livestreamed, back-to-back, in support of the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund and Musicians Foundation.
The logistics of producing three live outdoor sets across the city in November – when the weather can bring everything from rain to snow – is almost heart-stopping. “The concerts required a large financial commitment, and we had just one shot to get them right,” Israel notes.
He became aware of ClimaCell through his high school alumni association, which reported news of his former classmate, Shimon Elkabetz, now CEO of ClimaCell. “The platform sounded better than the weather app on my iPhone,” said Israel, so he contacted Elkabetz for more details.
ClimaCell’s Boston headquarter customized a HyperCast dashboard for him, which kept tabs on Israel’s specific weather concerns – rain, wind and lightning – that could significantly affect the outdoor shows. The graphical dashboard, featuring colored bars for the different weather conditions on an event timeline, easily kept Israel informed.
“Or logged into the dashboard to view the weather conditions multiple times a day,” noted Dolgin. “He could send updates to his client and plan around any weather issues with his team.”
“Every morning I sent a screen shot of the dashboard to my client, which helped us make decisions 48 hours out from the event’s scheduled date,” Israel reported. “Knowing a few days before if an event is going to happen or not is a huge help logistically and financially. We were coordinating with almost 100 other vendors and members of the crew, and any cancellation would have involved the venues, labor, catering deliveries, the bands and more. ClimaCell was super-accurate, and it turned out that the weather couldn’t have been better for the concerts.”
Dolgin says that ClimaCell “was able to track the weather with the level of certainty and quality that Or needed. What resonates with ClimaCell is that everyone can look at the same information and make decisions off of the same information instead of each person using a different phone weather app. Having a unified view of the weather is extremely important for all participants, and it’s confidence inspiring, too.”
Israel “can’t wait” to use ClimaCell for his next outdoor event. “It’s a no-brainer to utilize ClimaCell for concert touring or any stand-alone outdoor event,” he says. “It’s so easy to use and so much is at stake for these events that I can’t imagine any event producer going without it.”
“When a business is dealing with technology and the weather, ClimaCell can be a huge advantage,” Dolgin said. “Weather intelligence can provide a lot of value to the AV production industry, and we’re eager to find more innovative partners who want to work with us as we develop ClimaCell further for this space.”
