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Dodd Technologies deploys Ayrton lighting, GrandMA3 consoles and MDG hazers for AT&T WNBA All-Star Game events
Pendleton, Indiana-based Dodd Technologies, Inc. utilized an array of Ayrton lighting fixtures, GrandMA3 consoles and MDG hazers for the 2025 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game. Dodd acted as the production partner with Pacer Sports & Entertainment for the All-Star Weekend events at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Friday night (July 18) featured the WNBA Skills Challenge, which was broadcast on ESPN. The game was played on Saturday and aired live on ABC, Disney+ and ESPN+. Dodd was not only responsible for the game’s halftime show, headlined by GloRilla, but also for the musical team introductions and other performances that added entertainment value to the weekend telecasts. The company had previously worked on the 2024 NBA All-Star Game and has a number of major sports credits.
Dodd designed the halftime stage to be an organic part of the court. “We wanted to make sure what we built looked like part of the existing architecture of the space”, says Vice President Andy Meggenhofen, who acted as the event’s lighting designer. “The all-LED stage had an upstage wall, side walls that staggered down to follow the seating lines, and a large LED floor. It was a very dynamic stage with a lot of depth and 3D effects while keeping the sight lines to all the seats. It provided great backgrounds for camera and great visuals for the live, sold-out audience.”
About half of the Ayrton lighting used for the event had previously been sold by Dodd to the Fieldhouse to be part of its permanent inventory. Dodd supplemented that gear with its own Ayrton fixtures. Fifty Ayrton Khamsin units were mounted in trusses about 100 feet over the main stage to deliver key lighting and effects.
Sixteen Zonda 9 FX furnished back light for the main stage. Four more units were set into the teams’ entry hallways to highlight players’ exits from the tunnels. Seventy-four laser-source Cobra2s were also deployed. “We’ve found a good niche for them with their beam effects outlining the court and their scanning effects and unique projections on the court”, explains Meggenhofen.
Dodd has been using the GrandMA platform for about fifteen years. and Meggenhofen says, “we’re very entrenched with them”. The company programmed the halftime show on GrandMA3 consoles and provided a complement of gear for the show’s lighting control. Two full-size GrandMA3s operated on the ground and at FOH for focus. Both eventually moved to the FOH position with one desk acting as a backup unit. In addition, Dodd supplied two XL processors, four 8-port nodes and a replay unit.
Dodd also placed one MDG ATMe haze generator with fan in each of the four corners of the catwalk. “This is our standard hazer for these types of events”, says Meggenhofen. Dodd conferred early on with ACT Entertainment, the distributor of the Ayrton, MA Lighting and MDG brands in North America, to confirm the plans they had in mind for the event.
For the WNBA events, Jason Lenhart and Asher McKenna were the master electricians, Nic Claypool the lead rigger, and JD Fackler the house rigger, working alongside Chris Lintner (house lighting), Jennifer Beavers (game lighting), Otis Howard (TV lighting director), Stephen Sakowski (follow spot lighting director), Jess Baker (programmer), Mike Grimes (gaffer), and Nolan Howard (lighting PA).
(Photos: ACT Entertainment/Ayrton/Dodd Technologies/RPGough Photography)
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