A busy few months for lightWRIGHT PRODUCTIONS
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Brad Wright of lightWRIGHT PRODUCTIONS has had a busy few months over summer. Late last year Brad won the lighting design contract for the Opening Ceremony of the Youth Olympics. The ceremony was held in January at the Sydney Superdome.
The lighting was supplied by Chameleon and Madzin Productions, who also supplied all audio and production management services. Oracle Laser supplied a 1w argon laser for the “cauldron lighting and lifting moment”
Lighting equipment included: 10 x Mac2000, 20 x Mac2000 wash, 6 x XR7, 12 x pallas 4 cyc units, 3 x Pacific Zooms, 8 x bar of 4 par 64, 6 x 1k Fresnel’s, Dimmers to suit, 108m tri truss + motors, 1 x 16m x10m White cyc, 4 x Unique Hazers, 2 x Jem Zr33 Foggers, 1 x Whole Hog II + Wing + Accessories, 2 x Followspots were supplied with crew from the venue
The event was a huge success and gained great TV coverage on the evening news and Sports tonight shows. The only problem Brad encountered was that of adequate smoke and haze coverage, “once the air conditioning kicked in that was almost the end of it”
Anyone have some good solutions for even smoke and haze in the Superdome..?
www. chameleon- touring.com.au
www.oraclelaser.biz
www.madzin.com.au
A week after the Opening Ceremony Brad flew out to Miami and boarded the Navigator of the Seas Cruise Liner for a week long charter. The contract was to light all dance parties and concerts in Studio B – an ICE skating rink, on the 2 nd largest cruise liner in the world.
If the task of working on a European built ship with European power, some US style power outlets, an ICE rink that became a dance floor wasn’t daunting enough, he was also informed that he had to light two mini concerts featuring US pop star, Deborah Cox. Equipment for concerts and dance parties was a combination of on board equipment and supply from PRG.
Equipment list included: 18 x Cyberlight Turbo, 16 x Mac600 E, 12 x Mac500 E, 24 x source 4 par, 24 x Data Flash, 4 x Martin QFX, 2 x MDG Hazers, 2 x MDG Foggers, 2 x DF50, 2 x LSG Low Smoke System, 1 x Whole Hog II + Wing + Accessories, 2 x Superstar Followspots
www.prg.com
Finally, in mid March, after too many club gigs during Sydney’s Mardi Gras period, Brad flew down to Melbourne to create Queernation Melbourne.
Queernation in Sydney has become a popular dance party at Sydney’s Home nightclub and Hordern Pavilion. Home decided to test the waters in Melbourne and Brad won the contract for Lighting and Production Design.
The equipment was a mix of the In-house lighting equipment and rigging at QBH hotel, and supply from CLS in Melbourne. The end result was one of the biggest lighting rigs ever seen in QBH:
Equipment included: 12 x Futurelight MH660 – Spot, 2 x Futurelight MH660 – wash, 6 x Coemar nats, 6 x Mac 550. 16 x Mac600, 2 x 3.5w Full colour Lasers, 1 x Custom Mirrorball installation, 2 x DF50, 2 x DMX foggers, 1 x Hog 1000, In house custom truss system, 4 x .5m tri truss, 1 x 1.5m radius circle truss + rigging
www.oraclelaser.biz
www.clsa.com.au
www.psyklonic.com
www.lightwright.com.au

Two Tribes
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Australia's favourite electronic music festival returned in March 2005 with a massive lineup of the world's best DJs and live acts. From it's humble beginnings at the Melbourne Docklands over eight years ago, this carnival, come festival, come rave, come concert is a celebration of the end of the summer party season Australia wide!
Having in the past attracted up to 25,000 people at a single event, Two Tribes once again took in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, and Adelaide as Future Entertainment, in conjuntion with Hardware, united with a host of the country’s biggest promoters to bring Australia’s own electronic music event super-brand to a national audience.
This year acts included The Prodigy's original full live band, current hit machine Armand Van Helden along with appearances from turntable legend Grandmaster Flash, Dave Seaman, M.I.K.E (Push) and many more. Two Tribes continued its promise to deliver the best in musical direction whilst maintaining the pinnacle of production. The event explored the entire dance music sound spectrum with music from Hip Hop, House, Breaks, Drum and Bass, Trance, Electro, Techno and Booty.
Two Tribes played Melbourne Park on March 13th where there were MACs aplenty! The lighting and rigging equipment contractor for the entire event was Clifton Productions and was co-ordinated by Matt Hansen. As Clifton's had most of their equipment tied up at the Melbourne Motor Show happening at the same time they sub contracted out areas to different companies. The only exception to this was the stage rig used by The Prodigy which was their touring system.
For the Rod Laver Arena dancefloor CLSA provided a Martin MAC dominated rig designed by Tim Newman, Matt Hansen and Paul Owen. In all there were twelve Martin MAC2000 Profile, sixteen MAC600 Wash and twelve MAC550 fixtures.
The stage used The Prodigy's touring rig of Martin MAC's and Atomics supplied by Bytecraft.
The Vodaphone Arena was rigged by Capricorn using the grid used for the X factor and installed a week or so early. There where also some smaller truss PODS supplied by Cliftons suspended beneath the main grid. Lighting, supplied by Phase Shift included around twenty MAC500's and twenty MAC600's.
Lasers were by Oracle, Abbey Gee Inflatable Stars and fish from Blow Productions.
Photos: www.residentadvisor.com.au
www.showtech.com.au

Norah Jones in concert
Norah Jones is currently touring the country with lighting designed and operated by Australia's own Hugh Taranto. The following text is taken from the US publication Total Production US, with kind permisssion from editor Brude Jordahl. Bruce wrote the article and the photographs were taken by Jimi G. Please note that in Australia the lighting is supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems.
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Norah Jones’ wrapped her latest ‘Feels Like Home’ US tour to critical acclaim; she and her production next head to Asia in the spring. Following her rise in popularity (fueled by multiple Grammys), her tours have become bigger in scale and attendance, and in moving forward, it was important to Jones to retain the intimate mood of her earlier performances. Thus, ‘Feels Like Home’ recreates the silky vibe of NYC’s Living Room, a favored venue. From soft goods to custom luminaire enclosures, the creative team concocted a lush environment for the musicians.
Jones spends much of the evening behind piano and electric piano; when she steps out, it’s a real treat to watch the singer front her band. The setting is warm and fuzzy, and the result is an evening of great music with perfectly sympathetic visual treatment.
The sumptuous lighting scheme that bathes Norah’s performance space was created by lighting designer Hugh Taranto; the equipment was facilitated through favored vendor Christie Lites (www.christielites.com). LD Taranto’s mission statement on ‘Feels Like Home’ was to recreate the aforementioned intimate club vibe on an arena scale.
Hugh hails from Australia, and worked there before undertaking international touring with Australian bands such as Silverchair. He met Norah through doing her Aussie tour, and subsequently won the lighting design bid.
Taranto, who has worked in numerous musical genres, says it was a bit of a challenge lighting her music as opposed to a rock show. “There’s a lot more subtleties in Norah’s music,” he says. “Everything has to be subtle and in the background - like her music is. Anything too abrupt or harsh really stands out and would take away from the show – so it was challenging, yes, but quite rewarding.”
Christie Lites also worked on Norah’s previous tour. “We started in Dublin, and were there for a couple of months; we took a Christies’ rig over, and it was a testament to the quality of their gear. Of course, Ian Gordon came out to make sure it went down well,” he says.
The lighting package for the North American run included a unique mix of Martin, ETC and High End Systems instruments. Specifically, Hugh spec’d 28 MAC 600 NT’s, 15 MAC 2000’s, 13 MAC 250 Entours, eight HES Color Commands, and 56 Source Four PARs and Lekos. To create the smoky atmospherics, Taranto utilized a pair of Reel EFX DF-50s and a Jem ZR33 fogger.
The trussing configuration not only gave Hugh his necessary illumination angles, but helped support the club feel architecturally. Both rear trusses featured a straight section that turned the corner and wrapped around to close the stage in a bit – helping to give the impression of a jazz club. He explains, “In many of the amphitheatres we played, people were looking at the stage at quite an angle from the side, so they weren’t looking into the wings – in theatrical terms. That’s why we had the trusses bent at the rear.”
In Hugh’s design, proper front lighting necessitated a tungsten source. “I wanted a warmth and an organic nature to the front lights,” he says. Conversely, the rear truss held the intelligent lighting, to provide looks on the backdrop and lighting for the band. On the floor, Source Four PARs reinforced the organic layering, providing uplighting and filling in shadows. Towards the back, more MAC 600’s and 250 Entours handled backlighting and set dressing duties. ”Whenever I used intelligent lamps on the band for front lighting, which I do occasionally, again it’s a very organic shade – like a chocolate color. It has to work within the range of what would look good to the camera.”
Similarly, the use of spotlights is understated in his lighting direction. “We’d have one spot - a walker on stage at the beginning of the show, but for most of the evening she’s seated at the piano, and most of the band doesn’t move around much. Midway through the set, they’d do a breakdown section and all cuddle together - and she would move around a bit, so we used a spot on her during that segment.
The Reel EFX DF-50’s were positioned inside the stage, with Hugh running them on a switch mode dimmer, so during quieter parts of the set he could turn them off.
“Generally, I’d have the hazers pumping away as much as I could get away with; obviously this was helpful for the jazzy club effect,” he laughs. “We also had a Jem fogger placed between the white and black scrims for a special effect during In The Morning. I’d fog up the space between the scrims – and then I’d have lights shining through it to the white scrim, and the scrims would actually contain the smoke.”
Because of the cranberry drapes and moving instruments, Taranto employed gels judiciously in his conventional instruments. “I used a light pink in the Source Four PAR’s to light the borders and legs; you get this huge red look,” he says. “I picked 111 because it wasn’t too oversaturated, and didn’t bleed out of the cameras. In the scrollers, we had a few tungsten color corrections, just to make the tungsten warmer than it was, and a few oranges and such. I used a dark blue look in ‘Come Away With Me’, which was done with the PAR cans, but basically it was a fairly limited palette in the conventionals.
“Any front lighting was limited to flesh tones, nothing really too saturated, but from the back and on the drapes it was a bit more open; depending on the song I could use warmer or more saturated colors.”
For control, Hugh stuck with the venerable FPS Wholehog II, also using a Jands ESP desk as a surrogate wing, giving 24 submasters at his disposal. “It’s like a wing - but I prefer it,” says Hugh. “I really only use it for intensities - I didn’t need the ‘go’ and ‘stop’ that you’d get on a wing. It was laid out with Source Four intensities and other parameters that I’d need to override.”
“You don’t want to program too deeply in the song,” he adds, “because sometimes you need the ability to work things on the fly.
Interestingly, the tour’s spare Hog console lived at Dimmerland adjacent to the ETC 96-channel rack. “During the day we’d do dimmers and all our testing, focusing, etc., and also it served as a backup desk during the show. If there was any drama, we had some added protection. As it turned out we really didn’t need it, but it sure was comforting knowing it was there.”
Hugh says the Color Commands were the icing on his design cake. “We used them the whole time, and they were a big part of the show. My original plan included some hanging lanterns; the band liked the idea of the lamps but wanted to make it more retro - and specific to the club they played, The Living Room. The club had purchased as many retro 1970’s lamps as they could find, and we wanted to do that on a larger scale. We came up with the basic lamp design you see on the stage, but by the time we’d done all the figuring out what they would be, there wasn’t much time to have them made. But as it turned out, Ian helped out with the Color Commands!”
In closing, the LD credits Christie Lites and Ian Gordon for their contribution to the tour’s success. “They’ve been really behind us, and went out of their way and above the call by helping us build the set lamps. Because this show was so smooth, there’s not a huge amount to report, but I can’t say enough good things about them.”

Horden Sparkles & Shines for Mardi Gras
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The Hordern Pavilion at the 2005 Mardi Gras party was again the home of trance music, with Dutch DJ 4Strings playing a massive ten hour set to thousands of partygoers.
Richard Neville designed and operated the room's lighting, creating a dominating rig of truss and effects that spanned the entire roof void of the venue. The design consisted of four circular trusses, one in each corner of the room, linked together by bridges of diagonally hung tri truss. In the centre of the room, a large 9m wide circle and 6m long vertical box truss formed the centrepiece of the design.
Two unusual fixtures hung off the centre of the truss - Mac 600s that were customised by James Klein and Peter Sykes. The head of the 600 was removed, and replaced with a purpose built drum of mirrors. After a rather long and confusing boot sequence, the lighting operator had control of pan and tilt of the unit, which created some spectacular laser effects throughout the night.
On the stage, an additonal two circular trusses held four Mac600s for effects around the video wall. Ministrips were also used as stage lighting. A solid wall of video surrounded the DJ which was setup by Cairellie Audio Visual and operated by dance party veteran Morph.
Lighting was operated on the night by both Richard and Chris Dodd, who split operation to break up the 12 hours of partying and also to allow different effects and styles of operation to keep all the punters interested. Equipment was supplied by Bytecraft, with the crew doing an outstanding job setting it up and keeping it running throughout the night.
Out in the room, Laserpro installed and operated the laser system, made up of 20 laser heads positioned around the perimiter of the room. Two new spectacular solid state lasers were also used and were flown in above the stage for a dramatic entrance.
Equipment List: 36x Mac500, 20x Mac600, 2x Custom Mac600 "Death Stars", 8x Chromabanks, 8x Atomic Strobes, 24x Par 56, 6x Ministrip, 1x Hog II with Wing
Lighting Design: Richard Neville
Operation: Richard Neville, Chris Dodd
Lighting Equipment and Crewing:Bytecraft Entertainment
Lasers: Laserpro
Vision Equipment: Cairellie Audio Visual
Vision Operator: Morph
Mirror Effects: Psyklonic - Peter Sykes
Audio Equipment: Coda Audio
Audio Operators: Nathan Jones, David Hooton
More pictures and info on www.rsnlx.com

Cher on tour
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Touring the country is Cher with her "Farewell Tour" a spectacular concert that has thrilled more than 2.5 million people worldwide. The original lighting designer was Abbey Holmes with Jason Gangi acting as lighting director.
The rig inlcudes 44 x Icons, 22 x Icon Washlights, 36 x VL 2416, 16 x VL 2402, 4 x Color Pro 400, 2 x QFX 150, 4 x Truss Spots, 5 x House Spots, 8 x S4 Lekos, 6 x MR16 Strips, 100 x Star Strobes, and 59 x dimmers for lights in the set. Control is an Icon console.
Some of the lighting equipment was shipped here (the tour utilised a whole 747 airplane for gear and rumour has it the wigs took up most of it!) whilst Bytecraft Entertainment supplied some.
Photos: Bob King

Maxedia On Green Day “American Idiot” Tour
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Design company Artfag is busy these days. Partners Justin Collie and Doug “Spike” Brandt are currently working on two of the biggest tours of the year – Green Day and the Beastie Boys, both with Martin rigs. Green Day, which Justin handles (Spike took on the Beastie Boys), also incorporates visual content from a Martin Maxedia Digital Media Composer. Green Day are currently touring Australia with a rig supplied by Bytecraft Entertainment.
Justin handled both the lighting and set design for Green Day’s high energy “American Idiot” tour, which toured the US before the end of the year and is now in Europe. With an adversity to video, and a one word brief from the band - Fascism – Justin and lighting director Marcelo Cacciagioni put together a visual treat for fans.The core of the design encompasses three mini trusses each with three rows of three MAC 2000 Profiles. The setup includes a total of 47 MAC 2000 Profile, 27 MAC 2000 Wash, 41 Atomic 3000 Strobes and 10 FiberSource QFX used for a star drop.
Artfag-produced content is delivered to a SOFTLED backdrop curtain via a Maxedia media server. Admittedly, the LED drape, which is raised and lowered throughout the show, is used sparingly, but still the effect is striking. Marcelo Cacciagioni commented, “We used Maxedia primarily because it had not been used by everyone. It was still new and therefore we had the ability to make looks that don’t look like every other video show! It also did not eat up any DMX channels being that we are using it via artnet. “We enjoyed the on-board effects, it was simple to learn and manipulate. In a matter of minutes my techs figured out how to make a simple tech chase - not bad for their first time! As stated earlier, we are using Maxedia via artnet, allowing us to use those valuable DMX universes for other more important things like strobes. I am using the beta version so I am not sure how much changed with the final release, but I would recommend Maxedia to anyone looking for a simple user-friendly media server.
“I am using an almost entirely Martin rig. I cannot say enough about the 2K washes/profiles. The colour saturation is awesome. Justin Collie dreamt a concept of using 2K profiles as followspots and it adds just that little umph! It allows us to add effects on the followspots much like any other fixture on the rig.”
Equipment: 43 x MAC 2000 Profiles, 27 x MAC 2000 Wash, 4 x MAC 2000 Profile followspots, 41 x Atomic 3000 Strobes, 10 x FiberSource QFX 150, 7 x Fagpod w/CXI scrollers (6-DWE 1-3k strobe), 1 x Maxedia Digital Media Composer, 1 x Mainlight SOFTLED curtain 40' wide.
Photos: Lewis Lee
www.showtech.com.au

Pulsar blitz the Boiler Room
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Being one of the most demanding tours in Australia, the Big Day Out music festival never fails to draw capacity crowds in each and every location. Lighting designer Jamie Centofanti has just completed the grueling extravaganza where he designed and operated lighting for The Boiler Room, the hub of dance music for the festival. In fact 2005 was the eighth time that Jamie had been asked to do this task and each time he is under pressure to create a ‘new look’.
“Last year both myself and the promoters were very happy with the rig so I was very tempted to just use the same rig again!” he joked. “However, we’ve managed to come up with a show that eclipses last year very easily.”
And how did Jamie do that? He decided to use Pulsar ChromaBanks and ChromaPanels in abundance! In Sydney there were a massive sixty-eight ChromaBanks used around the Dome roof and a further twenty ChromaPanels used as a backdrop to the DJ position.
“They’re great fixtures!” exclaimed Jamie. “They use very little power and have a great light output plus they weigh very little. This year, the ChromaBanks replaced blinders so I didn’t need a whole lot of dimmers and molefays. They were so easy to set up and worked all the time without needing focusing. It meant that this year there were only twelve channels of dimmers in the whole Boiler Room. I want fixtures that are as easy and as quick as possible for my crew to set up and the ChromaBanks fit the bill. As a result we broke records in every city that we were in with our setups.”
Jamie also commented that the ChromaBanks took away the need for any décor as they are such a great effect on their own.
”It looked really polished just having the ChromaBanks as the main element,” he added.
At the Dome in Sydney there were sixteen forty-foot trusses, in two rings, around the ceiling. Each truss held four ChromaBanks plus two Martin MAC2000 washes, two MAC2000 Profile and three Martin Atomic strobes. In the centre of the room was an octagon shaped rig holding another eight ChromaBanks and twenty-four MAC2000 fixtures.
“It gave me big rings of light and getting a chase going was pretty impressive,” said Jamie. “The ChromaPanel wall behind the DJ had so many possibilities for stunning effects you could spend a whole week just programming that. As a feature, it did exactly what we wanted it to and provided a great highlight for the DJ area, drawing the focus to that area when needed. The amount of light thrown out by the wall was amazing and had no trouble getting people’s attention. I loved it especially once I got some chases programmed into it.”
For control Jamie used a MA Lighting GrandMA for the first time, taking instruction from Show Technology’s Vince Haddad the week prior to the tour.
”Vince spent a day with me and I just fell in love with the console,” said Jamie. “I’ve just had to use a Hog II after a month with the grandma, and I’m noticing that I have to push an extra four buttons to record something on a Hog II. With the GrandMA the syntax is quick and the ability to change things on the fly is very good. I used the layout views a lot which was handy for programming the strobe towers as well as the ChromaPanel wall. I’m a bit of a convert now!”
As usual Jamie used a massive amount of Martin Atomic strobes; a total of seventy-eight plus twenty-four Atomic Colors. A special feature were the two Strobe Towers each holding twelve Atomics with colour changing ability and the result was awesome.
Headlining act The Chemical Brothers were so impressed by the Strobe Towers they have decided to tour them in their own rig for the rest of the year.
Photos: Darren McLanders, www.inthemix.com.au
www.showtech.com.au

Tom, John.....and Martin!
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In their respective home countries, Australia and Wales, they're each known simply as “the Voice”. It's a signature their fans might argue belongs to one or the other: John Farnham or Tom Jones. But for the men themselves, it's the basis of their mutual respect.
Australia 's voice John Farnham , and Wales ' voice Tom Jones have just completed double-headlining concert series in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne next year, perform separately and together.
It's not the first time Farnham and Jones have sung together. That being in 1990 on TV's Hey Hey It's Saturday, when they performed, impromptu, the song My Yiddisha Muma.
Farnham's manager and promoter of the concerts, Glenn Wheatley says that they've been trying to get it together to do ‘properly' ever since, but because of timing and clashing itineraries it hasn't been viable until this year, fifteen years later.
”Tom performs about 250 a year so finding a gap in his schedule has been fairly tough,” said Chris Newman, Farnham’s long serving lighting designer who lit the tour. “Tom had to rearrange some Vegas dates to make these show happen. I was in touch with Tom’s lighting designer but in the end the design ended up all mine as we started to run out of time.”
Fortunately for Chris, the band line up for Tom was almost exactly the same as for John only reversed; the backup singers were where the brass section were and vice versa.
”That meant I could do the same stage layout for both bands,” commented Chris. “I designed a rig that was very different to anything I’ve done before and I also decided to use video as a background component.”
The lighting fixtures that Chris used were predominantly Martin MACs, the same as the fixtures used by Tom’s LD whilst touring the US. The count was 34 x Martin MAC2000 Profile, 20 x MAC2000 Wash and 17 x MAC600 Wash.
In Sydney, where the show was performed outdoors at the Domain, the rig was slightly smaller as the width of the stage was short and the trim height was less. This meant that four side trusses had to be axed for these shows. The dominating feature to the set design was the six vertical trusses at the back of the stage that bent over the stage area.
’I wanted a design that got away from the same old straight trusses along the stage,” explained Chris. “You can almost get the same layout with the trusses this way and they break up the three LED screens which I was using in a vertical format. The use of the trusses between the screens gives me enough material to fill the back of the stage without having to spend all of my budget on solely LED screens.”
An added bonus to the use of trusses and LED screens is that there was no need for cycs or scrims, a valuable benefit when playing outdoor shows.
www.showtech.com.au

2004 Australian Tourism Awards
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The winners of the 2004/05 Australian Tourism Awards were announced at a gala dinner on 11 February, at the Alice Springs Convention Centre. The awards acknowledge tourism businesses that have demonstrated outstanding achievement and success during the year.
All of the design, production, element, table LED lights, lighting, trussing, video, custom stage, set, audio, signs, custom LED lectern, LED drapes, multi-media was supplied by Top End Sounds.
Tourism Australia said "it is the best awards presentation we have ever had."
www.topendsounds.com.au

Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Sydney
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The Edinburgh Military Tattoo, one of the most celebrated entertainment attractions n the world, visited Australia for the very first time in February 2005. Over 1300 performers including military bands from five countries, pipes and drums and supporting performers took part in this once-in-a-lifetime event.
This is only the second time in its 55-year history that the Tattoo has been staged outside Edinburgh and represents a major coup for Sydney.
Over more than half a century plus, some 11 million people have attended live performances of the Tattoo, staged in front of historic Edinburgh Castle, whilst a staggering 100 million people worldwide enjoy the event annually on television.
With personnel representing all sectors of the Australian Defence Force, the live performances in Sydney were the largest single gathering of military and civilian musicians and dancers ever seen in Australia.
Bringing The Edinburgh Military Tattoo to Australia was an activity of huge logistic proportions. One of the biggest challenges was recreating the guardhouse, gates and walls of historic Edinburgh Caste on the turf of Aussie Stadium. This dramatic backdrop is synonymous with the Tattoo and is, in the words of Tattoo organisers, “essential to the magic of the presentation.”
Just over 25 metres high and embracing the entire southern end of the Stadium, the replica of the Castle was faithful in every detail including drawbridge, sentry boxes and emplacements for cannons on the ramparts. The flags of Australia, Britain and Scotland fluttered from flagpoles from the ramparts where the traditional Lone Piper appeared at the conclusion of the show. The Castle was also the staging point for a magnificent nightly fireworks display.
Colonel Richard Hambleton is the resident lighting designer for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo but it was decided an Australian lighting professional with an eye for design and a flair for technology would also be required. Mark Hammer fitted the bill and consequently had lengthy consultations with the Colonel.
“He asked me for suggestions regarding fixtures and how best to light this particular venue,” explained Mark. “I drew a plan for him and specified the fixtures, which he approved.”
The lighting brief was for very little audience lighting, basic lighting on the castle and to light the field of play.
“The Colonel had the idea of lighting the field with stripes which I accommodated,” said Mark. “They didn’t want to reinvent the show, they were looking to do a similar show to the one they do every year in Scotland. They wanted it as true to that as possible.”
As with the Rugby World Opening Ceremony, Mark opted for a rig dominated by Martin MAC moving heads; eighty x Martin MAC2000 Wash, forty-six x MAC2000 Performance and twenty x MAC2000 E Profile.
”We used the MAC2000 Performances for their shutter and output ability,” added Mark. “The MAC2000 E Profiles were used for their light weight and great output whilst the MAC2000 Washes utilised a PC lens with a 30 mm aperture ring. I used all the MACs in the air so the whole colour changing mechanism would be the same.
”Really the MACs were not chosen for their ability to produce patterns, as that is not a requirement in this show, but more their output, weight and beam shaping capabilities. Gobos were used a few times but not often.”
Five trusses per side were hung from the roof of the stadium; each truss holding fourteen lights consisting of eight x Martin MAC2000 Wash, four x MAC2000 Performance and two x MAC2000 E Performance.
Lighting the castle was twenty-four Studio Due CityColor 1.8 and 2.5k and six Studio Due MiniCity 250 colour changers. A total of 30 channels of dimming was used on the castle. Two x 5kw Fresnels, with scrollers, backlit the entrance gate, 500w floods lit the cannon embrazures and flags, and waterproof Par64 lit the lone piper. The choir and trumpeters were lit with 1.2k Aurora cyc floods in footlight positions due to the lack of rigging positions where fixtures could be hidden.
Power was from four 500kva generators supplied and maintained by John, Romani and Dave from Aggreko. Used were a super silenced pair synced together at the northern end of the venue and another synced pair at the southern end.
“We had great support from Show Technology for this event,” concluded Mark. “Right from the early stages Vince Haddad and Andrew Winslade gave their time and expertise in trialing and experimenting with their equipment, the same service shown to me with the RWC Opening. After the first of our extremely heavy and violent rain storms Vince Haddad and James Evans came down with their version of a MASH and performed emergency surgery on water damaged equipment and then flew off into the sunset. They were prepared for any situation and didn’t leave until all was well. Thanks for great support.”
Crew Credits:
Production Manager: Janet Eades
Lighting Console Operator: Gerry Mott
Assistant Lighting Supervisor: Jason Fripp
Lighting Secondment (NIDA): Matt Tunchon
Lighting supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems
Production Coordinator: Brad Gander and Tony Davies
Lighting Crew Chief: Hugh Hamilton
Senior Tech: Ian “Gooch” Blackburn
Setup and Show Crew: L’argent Wilson, Tiana Salmon, Graham Walker, Adam Crawford, Tim Van Dyke, Steve Pearse,
Chameleon SWAT crew: Jeff Ward, Greg Yates, Greg Little, Lauchlan Conquer, Steve Richards, Greg Davies
Fibre/Data Tech : Nick Eltis
Crewing and Follow spot Operation: Australian Crewing Service
Photos: Steve Lunam, Hamilton Lund, Matt Tunchon and Mark Hammer
www.showtech.com.au

Chameleon Touring Systems and Martin help disaster relief concert raise millions
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A collective featuring some of Australia’s most popular contemporary musicians performed at WAVEAID - a once in a generation event that generated approximately $2 million in funds for the millions of people whose lives have been irreversibly impacted by the recent Tsunami disaster in Asia.
The sold-out show was held at Sydney’s Cricket Ground before an audience of 50,000. The concert was broadcasted live on many radio networks around the country and highlights televised on various channels the following day.
The concert saw over eight hours of quality performances from the likes of Nick Cave, The Finn Brothers, Kasey Chambers, The Waifs, Missy Higgins, Powderfinger, John Butler Trio and highly anticipated sets from both silverchair and Midnight Oil. This was the first time that silverchair had performed for over two years whilst Midnight Oil were lured out of retirement for such a special occasion.
The WAVEAID concert was organised by veteran promoter Michael Chugg, Mark Pope and Joe Segreto. To ensure that maximum money was raised, the event organisers engaged suppliers to either work free of charge or at cost. All those including the bands, managements, promoters and publicists, crew, lighting and PA suppliers involved in staging this event donated their services and time free of charge. The Cricket Ground waved their hire fees.
Chameleon Touring Systems were approached twelve days prior to the event to design and install the lighting rig. Managing director Tony Davies did not hesitate to offer his services, happy to supply crew and as much lighting as necessary for such a worthy cause. This was despite the fact that it was one of their busiest times of the year with the Big Day Out touring festival and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo performing at the same time.
Respected Australian lighting designers Baz Barrett and Hugh Taranto collaborated to produce a spectacular lighting design. Hugh, long time lighting designer for silverchair, was unable to stay for the actual show as he was in Jamaica with Norah Jones.
“It was strange because I was looking for a concept that would represent the event and I decided to start with a flown truss configured into a giant helping hand,” explained Baz. “Then I saw the first advertisement for the event and it featured a hand – a good omen! Tony Davies had already told me that he really wanted me to go to town on the design so I needed something that was quick, easy and mega.”
Fortunately for Baz, Chameleon stock hundreds of Martin MAC moving heads and so he knew that he could produce a stunning, reliable light show on the all important day. In all there was a total of forty Martin MAC600, twenty-four MAC500, twenty-four MAC2000 Profile and ten MAC2000 Wash.
Throughout the truss-hand there was a combination of MAC500s and MAC600s with MAC2000 Profiles hung from the edges as well as 5K fresnels for the television cameras. There were no moving lights on a front truss just more 5K’s and truss followspots.
Out on the wings of the stage were several 8-lite and 6-lite molefays as well as five Martin MAC2000 Washes per side to light up the audience.
”The concert certainly was a MAC-attack!” said Baz. “I’ve used a lot of MACs in my life and bang for buck, you can’t go past them.”
Injecting more drama into the rig were twenty-six Martin Atomic strobes, placed in pairs between the MAC2000 Profiles hanging from the truss-hand.
”I love the Atomics, they’re definitely the best strobe I’ve ever used in the world,” exclaimed Baz. “They’re extremely bright and they don’t seem to ever fail. If you set them just right, you can get them to work as a blinder that doesn’t thermal-out.”
Smoke on stage was provided by four JEM ZR33 foggers.
A decision was made not to have a front of house control tower for followspots and control as the concert organisers were keen for all attending to get the best view possible of the stage. However Baz actually prefers to have his control position side of stage.
Credit must be given to the Chameleon staff who worked tirelessly to prep the rig prior to the event.
“We turned the entire trussing and light show around in the factory in about twelve hours,” said Baz. “The guys in the moving light department worked their tails off getting it all together. It was a mad, chaotic day but really good to see so many pulling together for a wonderful cause. The generosity by Chameleon was fantastic; they donated an incredible amount of lighting gear and time.”
www.showtech.com.au

Bytecraft have a Big Day Out with the two main stages
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The Big Day Out 2005 attracted a huge line up with Beastie Boys, John Butler Trio, Chemical Brothers, Powderfinger and many more local and international acts performing. Once again Bytecraft Entertainment was selected to provide lighting and expertise in Australia and New Zealand for the two main stages.
With record crowds in attendance and a variety of stages in action at once, all events were sold out in advance. The Bytecraft crew worked tirelessly on each event, ensuring that each location was a huge success.
Main Stage One
Crew: Sean Hacket (Crew Chief), Andy Cowan, Mic Buric, Justin Ogge
Equipment: 10 x 26 Degree Source 4, 18 x Colourset 8 Light Scroller, 3 x Colourset PSU, 4 x QI 500w Floodlight, 13 x Martin MAC2000 Profile, 6 x Martin MAC2000 Performance, 23 x High End Studio Color S Washlight, 12 x High End TechnoBeam, 7 x Studio Due CityColor, 44 x Black Par 64 ACL 250w, 48 x Black Par 64 NSP lamp, 15 x Molefay 8 Lighter, 2 x Whole Hog II Console, 1 x Whole Hog II Wing Board, Mains, Dimmers and Power Distribution to suit Data Distribution to suit, 51 x Truss Sections (various sizes & types), Rigging, Motor Controllers & Safety Equipment to suit, 2 x 15m 1T Chain Block, 8 x 1T Chain Motor, 6 x 500kg Chain Motor
Clearcom Talkback/Comms system to suit, 4 x DF 50 Diffusion Fogger, 4 x Domestic Gyro Smoke fan, 2 x F100 Smoke machine, 2 x Hurricane fan, 11 x Martin Atomic 3000 DMX Strobe.
Main stage Two:
Crew: Graham Jelly (Crew Chief), Fergal O’Sullivan, Kerry Paff, Chris Lawrence
Equipment: 3 x ETC Source 4 10 deg, 18 x Wybron 8 Lite Coloram Scroller, 36 x Rainbow Par 64 Scroller, 3 x QI 1000w Floodlight, 4 x 2kw Xenon Followspot, 16 x Martin MAC2000 Washlight, 14 x Martin MAC2000 Profile, 24 x Black Par 64 MFL, 32 x Black Par 64 NSP, 6 x ETC Source 4 PA, 28 x Molefay 8 lighter, 1 x Echelon/Hog 1000 Lighting Console, 2 x MA Lighting grandMA Lighting Console, Mains, Dimmers and Power Distribution to suit, Data distribution to suit, 39 x Truss sections (various types), Rigging, Motor controllers & Safety Equipment to suit, 12 x 1T Chain Motor, 9 x 500kg Chain Motor, Clearcom Comms/Talkback System to suit, 2 x DF 50 Diffusion Fogger.
Photos: Darren McLanders / Bytecraft
www.bytecraftentertainment.com

Guy Sebastian 'Beautiful Life' Tour
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Guy Sebastian recently completed the first stage of his hugely anticipated first-ever national tour. Since his explosion onto the Australian music scene in 2003, Guy has rocked the charts with number one hits and his six-time platinum debut album, Just As I Am. This tour promoted his new album Beautiful Life.
The tour continues in February and March with dates throughout NSW, ACT and Queensland.
Chameleon Touring Systems supplied the lighting equipment and crew with Jeff Pavey designing the lighting rig.
Equipment included:
Intelligent lights: 23 x Martin MAC2000 Wash, 14 x Martin MAC2000 Performance, 12 x Martin MAC250, 4 x Martin Atomic Strobes, 8 x Vari*Lite 2000 Spot
Analogue lights: 8 x Source 4 26* Profiles, 11 x Duet Molefay, 12 x Bars 4 ACL, 4 x UV Floods, 2 x 2.5k Long throw followspots
Control: 1 x WholeHog II, 1 x WholeHog II Wing
Miscellaneous: 1 x 40ft LED Starcloth, 4 x 10ft x 24ft Black Legs, 7 x 40ft x 3ft Black Borders, 2 x Unique Hazers, 2 x JEM DMX fans, 1 x LWR F-100 smoke machine. 1 x 36 inch mirrorball
www.chameleon-touring.com.au

CLS and the Australia Post Gala Dinner
CLS provided the lighting and trussing for the Australia Post Gala Dinner held at the Epicure Enclosure, Royal Melbourne Showgrounds on 22nd November.
Moving Lights: 6 x Martin MAC2000 Profile, 5 x Martin MAC600 Wash, 2 x Martin MAC550 Spot, 3 x Griven Kaliedo's
Analogue Lights: 11 x ETC Source Four, 10 x Selecon Fresnel Spots, 4 x Ministrip, 36 x Par 64 Alloy Cans, 16 x Par 56 Alloy Cans
Truss: 11 x 3m Alloy Tri Truss (300mm C-C), 6 x 1m Dia Linton Rings, 6 x Round Steel Bases, 14 x 3m Alloy Box Truss (500mm C-C), 2 x 8ft Alloy Box Truss (500mm C-C), 4 x Chain Hoist 1 Tonne, 1 x Chain Hoist Controller
CLS Ground Support consiting of: 4 x Climbing Cube, Base & Cat Head (500-400mm), 8 x Short Legs, 8 x Long Legs, 8 x Long Leg Braces, Clamps & Pins, 4 x 3m Alloy Box Truss (400mm) With Joiners, 4 x 3m Alloy Box Truss (400mm)
Control: 1 x Jands Echelon 1K Lighting Console, 1 x Jands HP Series Digital Rack
Effects: 1 x DF50 Diffusion Machine
www.clsa.com.au

Dido
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Lighting designer Andi Watson has been known to push the cutting edge of lighting and video technology. He is currently touring with Dido’s Life for Rent 2004 tour. Bytecraft Entertainment supplied: 10 x Strand Studio 2kw Fresnels, 10 x Wybron 10” Coloram, 5 x Wybron 8 Lite Coloram, 34 x Martin MAC2000 Washlight, 26 x Martin MAC2000 Performance, 11 x Martin MAC300 Washlight, 8 Lighter Bytecraft Horizontal Yoke, 2 x Whole Hog II Console, 1 x Whole Hog Wing Board, 4 x APC Dimmer 12 x 2.4kw Wieland, 4 x Bytesupply Distro 12 x 10A brown, 4 x Bytesupply Distro 12 x 10A brown, 5 x Jands DD8way Opto idolator, 2 x 4 Pack jands Dimmer4 x GPO, 5 x Tubular Ripple Machine, 4 x Fantec Axial Fan, 6 x Martin Atomic 3000 DMX Strobe.
Andi travels with the three G-LEC LED curtains that feature prominantly in the lighting design. These curtains are almost transparent, incredibly lightweight and easily manoeuvrable.
“The G-Lec screens we use were a primary design element for me, although I did look very closely at the MiPix screens from Barco and XL Touring Video" Andi told PLSN magazine in a recent interview. "I had in mind screens that would be semi-invisible when not in use, appearing as if by magic when and where I wanted them to be."
Bytecraft Crew: Andy Michinson, Ferdgal O’Sullivan, Murray Hare.
Photos: Stuart Sinclair
www.bytecraftentertainment.com

Hilary Duff on tour
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Hillary Duff's choice of music and musicians is a good introduction to rock and roll for the pre-teen and early teen set with the lighting and stage design seting the tone for an arena rock show. “The key to this rig,” says lighting designer Justin Kitchenman in an interview with PLSN Magazine, “is the sightlines. All I did was to keep it real clean and keep it open on the sides. You don’t want to pay $200 to bring the family and stare into the lights. It’s not Cats.”
Vibrant colours and colour combinations augmented the power cords and gave it a real rock feel. According to the LD, the band “stays in the box,” so his approach was to make “pretty pictures” with the “beams setting the mood with the rig.”
When it comes to automated lighting, Kitchenman is old school. “Everyone was quick to jump on the moving yokes, but I’m still a big fan of moving mirrors,” he says of the eight Cyberlight Turbo fixtures in the rig.
The rig for Australia was smaller than in the USA but included: 2 DF 50 Diffusion Fogger, 12 Martin MAC500 Profile Spot, 27 Martin MAC2000 Washlight, 8 Cyberlight Turbo, 12 Par 64 ACL 250 W lamp, 2 8 Lighter Bytecraft vertical yoke, 2 Echelon 1000inch Lighting Console, 1 APC Dimmer 12 x 2.4 kw Wieland, 1 48 way 483 Bytecraft Rack Frame, 4 Bytesupply Distro 12 x 10A
Bytecraft Crew: Crew Chief - Andy Mitchinston, James “Rocky” McKenzie, Marty Webber and Justin Ogge. Photos: Bob King
www.bytecraftentertainment.com

Toyota Global Stand
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Japanese car manufacturer Toyota has devised a new concept for presenting their cars worldwide at motor shows called the Toyota Global Stand. The company recommended basic guidelines as to how a stand is to appear and what is to be shown on it. This design is then customised locally in all areas such as lighting, audio and set design whilst retaining the original concept.
In Australia, Peter Rix Management (a George P Johnson company) was appointed as producers for the Toyota stand for the Australian Motor Shows. Chameleon Touring Systems provided the lighting with Ziggy Zeigler designing the lighting.
The lighting had to be approved by Toyota to ensure it complied with the Global Stand concept.
“Toyota provided me with general guidelines for the lighting but not actual specifics,” explained Ziggy. “It was my decision how the final outcome was achieved.”
The Toyota stand had four major components that merged into one complete stand: the concept section, the current model section, the Ideas Lounge and the PM Concept Vehicle.
Toyota specifically requested that the stand was not to be flood lit preferring that each car is treated as an individual ‘performer’ with spot lighting. Whilst the concept car was directly spot lit, the current models were lit more softly with the aid of scrims suspended from large upright poles on the stand and lanterns with soft focus capability.“The idea was to create soft light on the cars under the scrims, lighting each car individually,” said Ziggy. “I also lit the Ideas Lounge softly with reflected light bouncing off the wall surfaces rather than direct light. The PM Concept Vehicle, a one person vehicle, had to be lit brightly with harder edged light to accommodate an hourly technical presentation and demonstration of the new concept vehicle.
“There was also a large light wall lit internally by hundreds of fluorescents tubes that changed colour through the RGB spectrum. There were two other walls that had to be lit as background whilst the rest of the stand was not to be specifically lit. The idea was to light the features and vehicles only.”
The stand was approximately 52m wide by 24m deep with the height of the set being 6m. The chrome lighting trusses were set at 9m from the floor, with four main truss runs spanning the length of the stand with interconnecting bridge trusses.
Rather than attempting to light individual cars with analogue theatrical lights in the bright environment of the motor show, Ziggy chose to use 37 Martin MAC2000 Wash fixtures equipped with PC lenses.
“This was after many discussions with Tony Davies from Chameleon Touring Systems. We agreed that not only would these lanterns suit the concept, but they would also give us the flexibility to change minor details at short notice. And this was required frequently; being a new stand it literally evolved before our eyes. With the eternal vigilance and endless effort and dedication of our lighting manager Josh Moffat we adapted to the final product with relative ease.
“With the MAC2000 Washes I was able to easily adjust zoom, intensity and colour temperature. Lighting the Motor Show is always difficult because you have to wait until the vehicles are in place which is often 2am in the morning of the show opening but with the MAC2000 Washes I didn’t have to send anyone up into the truss to re-focus at the last minute as I could do it all from the control desk.
“Control of the colour temperature was particularly useful as I could change from daylight to tungsten, or anything in between, which meant each car, could have its own look and feel.”
Ziggy also deployed six Martin MAC2000 Profiles to light the PM Concept Vehicle area as well as a collection of Fresnels to light banners and the reception areas. 12 Metal halide Source IV Pars lit up additional signage and 24 source four pars with frost filled in shadows underneath the canopy scrims.
Client: Toyota Motor Corporation Australia
Stand Producers: Peter Rix Management (A Division of George P. Johnson Co)
Producer: Peter Rix
Project Director: Emma Moroney
Stand Manager (Technical): Tony Papp
Production Manager Stand: Dan Fahey
Production Manager overall: Dave Comer
Construction Manager: Paul Ryan
Set Design: Eamon Darcy
Staging/Set provided by: Staging Rentals
Lighting Design: Ziggy Ziegler
Lighting Manager: Josh Moffat
Lighting provided by: Chameleon Touring Systems
Audio Design: Tony Moffat
Audio Provided by: A.D. Moffat and Associates
Vision provided by: TDC
Vision Consultant: Toby Waley
Stand Operator: Johnny McGarrity
www.showtech.com.au

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