Production News
Back on the road: grandMA2 joins Fleetwood Mac
Posted on Friday, May 17th, 2013
Fleetwood Mac is back on the road and a grandMA2 console has joined the iconic band on the Fleetwood Mac Live 2013 World Tour. The new tour, which began in Columbus will wrap in Australia in December, marks the first for the band since 2009’s sold-out “Unleashed” tour. This year is also the 35thanniversary of their “Rumours” album, one of the most successful in recording history. It remained on top of the pop charts for more than 31 weeks and produced four Top Ten singles.
Aussie ex-pat lighting designer Paul “Arlo” Guthrie of Minneapolis-based Toss Film + Design is Fleetwood Mac’s long-time lighting designer.“I have to cater to four different personalities (Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks) and bring them together as one team,” he explains.“For this show we have four big soft box panels and 32 Clay Paky Sharpy Washes on curved lighting pipes, some of them on the floor, some on the rigs and some in pods that come out. They hang on weird angles and move during the show – some are on 45, 90 and 120º angles. They’re well featured – the main workhorse washlight of the rig.”
Arlo brought his own grandMA2 full-size on tour to run “the whole show” and reports that “it’s working as good as it always has. It’s super comfortable; it’s like hanging out with an old friend each day.My grandMA2 is more than capable of running everything, including the video.”
Clarity LX Consoles – the Biggest Winner!
Posted on Friday, May 10th, 2013
The new Clarity LX series consoles have proved invaluable for Sydney broadcast lighting director Grant “Doc” Watson and his operation Strauss Productions.
Up until the final series of 2011, Watson was lighting the Australian productions of The Biggest Loser and My Kitchen Rules on a series of LSC maXim consoles. The Biggest Loser saw the largest maXim XXLP console loaded to its limits with moving lights and dimmers.
With the need for a platform upgrade in mind, Watson was able to assess Clarity software on his Mac notebook and realised just how easy it was to use in the “live” environment most of his productions demand. Rarely are the shows shot in a broadcast studio with some being produced in disused military buildings and naval dock yards, agricultural sheds, community centres and bare walls studios. The key to this style of operation and its success has been off-site planning. The Clarity LX series cross platform inter-operability with the PC and Mac software has allowed Strauss to create shows on Clarity software on a laptop while the LX Consoles are in use elsewhere and then bring the show file to site on a USB stick. This has minimised the time required onsite doing patching etc and maximised resources available for rigging truss and luminaires, and running the power and data distribution that these locations and sizeable rigs demand.
Since September 2012, Strauss have used Clarity LX300 and LX600 consoles to create the top rating My Kitchen Rules, The Biggest Loser, Top Model and the interview components of The Voice.
Watson, who is over the moon with the versatility and ease of use of his Clarity LX300 and LX600 consoles states, “Some of the shows we do are simple and straight forward, whereas others use highly complex rigs. Clarity LX300 and LX600 and the Clarity software and wing solutions give me the flexibility to make each and every one of them a breeze.”
Jands Vista Consoles Return To Their Birth Place With Sir Cliff!
Posted on Wednesday, April 24th, 2013
Sir Cliff Richard OBE returned to Australia earlier this year with his hit-packed Still Reelin’ and A-Rockin’ tour and with him was his long-time lighting designer Derek Jones who was touring an impressive rig that held close to ninety moving lights.
Derek has been a champion of Jands Vista consoles for many years and so it was no surprise to see him travel here with his own Vista S3 and Vista M1, part of a larger family of Vista consoles that he owns.
One word comes to Derek’s mind when asked what it is about the Jands Vista consoles that he likes and that’s ‘easy’.
“The Vista consoles are easy to operate and easy to programme,” he replied. “I also like the support that you get from Jands as they will actually listen to your ideas and feedback, coming up with real solutions to help achieve what you need.”
Derek also favours the ‘mix and match’ ability offered by owning a few Vista consoles as well as their portability.
“The surface is flexible, small and highly portable,” he declared. “Depending on the size of the job, I can package a kit to suit. For example I have just finished a job for a TV station with just an S1 which I could pop in my bag along with a laptop. The S3 is larger but I’ve packaged it into a roadcase so it weighs less than 32 kilograms and I can check it in at an airport. Stick your laptop in your rucksack and off you go.”
Features of the Vista that impress Derek include snapshots which makes playing back a show simple and also the effects engine.
“I like the way that everything is assignable,” he added. “The Vista consoles are very reliable and haven’t let me down yet despite being taken all around the world.”
Derek is running the current release of Vista v2 software which he describes as brilliant.
ShowPro Pix Pads provide The Logies with amazing eye candy
Posted on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013
Rohan Thornton, lighting designer for the 55th Annual TV Week Logie Awards at the Crown Palladium in Melbourne, saw the event as an ideal opportunity to use one of Show Technology’s hottest new products – the ShowPro Pix Pad!
“When working in television you’re always looking for new eye-candy effects for a bit of variety so I was delighted to see the Pix Pad at the Sydney CX Roadshow ,” remarked Rohan. “It’s an exceedingly low resolution screen that can be pixel mapped, be blocks of colours and also a very effective wash light. In fact there’s no shortage of luminosity out of them – we were running ours at 20% even with two layers of diffusion over the top of them. Add the fact that you can join them together to make different shapes and they’re a really versatile unit.”
Rohan further describes the Pix Pad as a cost effective version of living scenery and on The Logies he used forty-four unitssupplied by Resolution X.
“I used them to fill in the gaps between the LED screens around the room,” he added. “I pixel mapped them for things like chases and used them as eye candy rather than a physical light. They were simple to install and program.”
Individual control of each RGB pixel means that when several Pix Pads are placed togetherusers can scroll text and run advanced colour chases. However there are also a large number of on-board programs which can run in stand-alone mode to ensure a simple and quick set up when required.
Planetshakers Conference 2013
Posted on Monday, April 15th, 2013
Planetshakers City Church in Melbourne held their annual conference between the 2nd and 5th of April at Hisense Arena. Again this year, Planetshakers turned to Resolution X to supply lighting, rigging and crew to the conference. The production design was a collaborative effort between Production Director Dan Cornwell and Paul Collison of Eleven Design. The scale of production was the size of any international touring arena act with a comprehensive set that looked amazing while also being flexible enough to provide different looks over all four show days.
Dan was happy to expand on why Resolution X was again chosen for this very large production. “In my experience, working with Resolution X over the last few years, the support and quality of product that comes out of the warehouse is always exactly what’s originally promised. Tim has a stellar crew and his gear is always 100% reliable”.
Dan and Paul’s design took advantage of ResX’s new MAC Vipers and extensive stock ofBlinder Bars, Martin MAC 700 Washes, MAC 101s and MAC TW1s as well as Clay Paky Alpha 700 Beams and Sharpys for those vital mid-air beam effects. A very large number of offset and irregularscreens provided by Mediatec added depth to the overall look of the show. Paul operated the show using two GrandMA 2 Lite Consoles with an extra fader wing for added control. System processing was via two Grand MA NPU processors
A rig with 200+ moving lights and more than 150 conventional fixtures doesn’t just stay up in the air by itself, the ResX crew with help from Capricorn Rigging hung over 75 motors and 330m of truss.
Paul Collison said “The relative ease and trouble free install of this show is a testament to highly skilled and well organised team at Res X.”
Clay Paky Sharpy Washes make their debut on The Logie Awards
Posted on Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
The 55th Annual TV Week Logie Awards was held on Sunday 7 April 2013 at the Crown Palladium in Melbourne, Australia and broadcast live on the Nine Network.
For several years the lighting has been designed and operated by Rohan Thornton in his role of Lighting Director at the Nine Network however he left the network last year to freelance. Fortunately Nine realised they needed his talent and expertise and employed him on a contract basis.
On request from Rohan, Show Technology, Clay Paky’s Australian distributor, rushed in the new Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures. The Sharpy Wash lacks absolutely nothing the best washlights have: a zoom that ranges from 6° to 50°, CMY colour mixing, a wheel with special colours, a rotating beam shaper, a frost filter, a motorized top hat and so on. Depsite all of these amazing features, the Sharpy Wash weighs just nineteen kilos and is as small as its brother, the Sharpy “beam”.
Rohan first saw the Sharpy Wash at the LDI show last October and he rated it the standout product of the show.
“I thought they were brilliant!” he remarked. “The speed, quality of beam, quality of colour and all the features were amazing. They have great intensity, power efficiency, and of course Clay Paky colours are always fantastic. The Sharpy Wash is simply a really good, small light with a lot of tricks. It’s really versatile due to its beam range and beam shaping – a true multifunctional light.”
At The Logies Rohan positioned the Sharpy Washes above the host set from where they could wash the stage and during the musical acts they, along with Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700’s, were the essence of the moving light rig.
“The Sharpy Washes performed great, we had no failures and the spares are still covered in dust,” commented Rohan. “We found some really cool tricks to do with them such as beam chases and the consistency across the rig was phenomenal. The CTO was really nice on them too.”
As well as the thirty-six Sharpy Washes the rig featured eighty Sharpy Beams, sixty Alpha Beam 700’s, Martin TW1’s, Martin MAC Auras, MAC301’s and MAC101’s as well as 220 Pro Shop LED MulitPARs, GLP Impression X4’s and Martin Fusion Bars.
Unusually, Rohan decided to use Clay Paky 1500 and 700 Alpha Profiles as key lights; a somewhat bold experiment that fortunately worked a treat.
“Traditionally I would key light using a tungsten based profile or something like that but the problem is that graphics are fundamentally created at daylight level so we never got really good clarity on shows at this venue,” he explained. “I decided to use the 1500 and 700 Alpha Spots but most arc lights are very difficult to colour correct. I discovered that Rosco could supply Permacolor filters and thought I could replace some of the colour corrections but of course modern moving lights have fixed wheels for their fixed colours. However we worked out that we could get some cut and made to go in the gobo slots. We ended up using the variable CTO and Permacolor filters to come up with a colour temperature of about 5000 degrees Kelvin. So basically all my lectern lights, back lights were either 700’s or 1500’s and that allowed us to do things like have a tight lectern or if there were a lot of people at the lectern we could expand the shutters out without changing the intensity. It worked really well and we certainly got some clarity out of the graphics that we’ve never had before.”
The main lighting suppliers for The Logies were Resolution X and PRG with Resolution X sub-hiring the Sharpy Washes from Chameleon Touring Systems. Lighting Lab and Clearlight also supplied a small amount of gear.
Photos: Ben Claydon
Mandylights at Ultra Music Festival 2013
Posted on Thursday, April 4th, 2013
Sydney Australia-based lighting design house Mandylights was responsible for the design, programming and operation of the main stage at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival. The world’s largest and most well-known electronic dance music (EDM) festival, staged over six days drew a staggering 380,000 partygoers and featured what was arguably North America’s largest ever festival lighting design and technical setup.
Mandylights lighting designer Richard Neville and Associate Alex Grierson used well over one thousand intelligent fixtures to light the stage which was some ninety metres wide and thirty metres high and featured water fountains, twenty automated video-clad stage lifts, an extravagant automated set of ‘doors’ that tracked upstage and down and the first use of ABB automotive robots at a festival. Working closely with producers James Klein of James Klein Events and the legendary Bruce Rodgers of Tribe Design, Inc., Neville and Grierson were able to create a lighting design that placed lights in every possible position to highlight and exaggerate the amazing design of the stage.
“It was a pleasure to throw the tired old festival concept of four straight trusses out the window” commented Neville. “The UMF 2013 main stage design was all about re-defining what could be done at a festival so all elements – lighting, automation, staging, pyrotechnics and video were designed with the common goal of making something spectacular, completely new and never before seen.”
Over nearly four months of involvement with the design, Mandylights created and drew the entire design in-house, before employing their visualisation software for both pre-production renders for their client and pre-programming which was carried out in their Sydney studio and in a mobile studio on site in Miami.
The city of Miami was hardly ready for the size of the stage and lighting at this year’s festival with programming shut down by police on the first night citing that the lighting was responsible for illuminating much of downtown Miami. Fortunately, the on-site Mandylights visualisation studio featured a highly accurate model of the stage which included all of the scenic design elements and even simulated full automation elements so that lighting could be programmed with unprecedented accuracy.
With a stage design and staging elements that had never been seen before on such a large scale, Mandylights was excited to continue this design theme throughout the lighting rig. Neville and Grierson employed almost a hundred new TMB Solaris Flare strobes; an LED strobe fixture of incredible output that not only has full colour mixing, but can also stay illuminated indefinitely without the decay of a normal strobe fitting. Also featuring heavily in the rig was the new Robe 100 LED Beam with 176 scattered across the front of the set. All of these elements combined with Krypton KR25 panels, Novalight Supernova flowers and hundreds of other fixtures to create a design that was able to consistently produce new looks for every artist.
Ultra’s main stage played host to the world’s most famous DJs; Tiesto, Avicii, Armin van Buuren, Deadmau5, Steve Aoki, Alesso, Above & Beyond, David Guetta, Fatboy Slim and Calvin Harris were some of the thirty plus artists featured and the epic Swedish House Mafia played their final show ever on the final night of the festival. Neville and Grierson’s design and operation played a key role in redefining the expectations of a demanding crowd as to how a main stage can look and react at such a high-profile event.
Fixtures: 124x Vari*Lite VL3000 Spot, 32x Vari*Lite VL3500 WashFX, 76x GLP Impression X4 Wash, 121x Clay Paky Sharpy (including 20x Chrome finish), 176x Robe 100 Beam, 89x Robe 600 LED Wash, 25x Robe 1200 LED Wash, 87x Solaris Flare LED Strobe, 67x Martin Atomic Strobe, 60x Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 RGB, 63x Color Kinetics iWhite LED, 30x Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 48, 25x Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 72, 40x Elements KR25 Panel (similar to a Jarag Panel), 27x 4way Molefay, 6x Supernova, 3x Gladiator Follow Spot, 4x MDG Hazers – The One, 8x Jem ZR44 Fog Machines, 6x GrandMA2 Full Size Consoles (2 primary, 2 backup, 2 in visualisation studio), 2x HighEnd Systems Road Hog Full Boar (Deadmau5 only), 12x GrandMA2 NPU (6 active, 6 backup).
Equipment
Head Systems: Geoff Huey
FOH Technician: Alex Ares
Production Credits
Lighting Design / Programmer: Richard Neville
Associate Design / Programmer: Alex Grierson
Producers: James Klein Events (James Klein) and Tribe Design (Bruce Rodgers)
32 Hundred to light up Harbour Bridge for Vivid Sydney
Posted on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Stoner, has today announced that Sydney Harbour Bridge will be the centrepiece of a new interactive light installation for Vivid Sydney, extending the Vivid Light Walk across the harbour into the North Sydney precinct for the first time.
Vivid partner, Intel Australia, has teamed up with Sydney-based 32 Hundred Lighting to create a world-first immersive projection onto the bridge’s western face which will be controlled by the public from an interactive touch screen located on the Luna Park boardwalk.
From 6.00pm to midnight every night, between 24 May and 10 June, spectators will be able to choose the scene and colour of the projection beamed along the upper and lower arches and the road deck of the western face of Sydney Harbour Bridge.
32 Hundred Lighting will design the installation including 100,800 individual programmable LEDs and a state-of-the-art custom-designed software program with an interactive touch screen interface.
Thunder on a Hill HOG Rally
Posted on Wednesday, March 27th, 2013
A large number of Australian Harley Fanatics rode from all corners of Australia to celebrate the 22nd Australian National HOG Rally in Canberra late last year. Nearly 1,500 members of the Harley Owners Group (HOG) joined in on the festivities over the three day meet and celebration held in the ACT.
The production for the big weekend party ‘Thunder on the Hill’ was organised and delivered by Elite Sound and Lighting, who supplied all the lighting, visual and audio technology.
The centrepiece of the concert stage which was designed for the legendarily Richard Clapton’s performance, was a VuePix L series screen.The 10mm pixel pitch modular screen was utilised for some great visual background effects. All of the displayed content was streamed from an ArKaos A30 Media server through a Vision Pro HD processor and DMX controlled via ChamSys Maxi Wing and Tablet PC.
The lighting rig consisted of 8 x Robin MMX Spots, 16 x Robin 600 LEDWash fixtures and 16 x Robin 100 LEDBeams. The 600 LEDWashes and 100 LEDBeams were used both for wash / beam lighting as well as for visual eye-candy effects on the stage. All of this new lighting was controlled by a ChamSys MQ100 Expert console. A LeMaitre MVS Hazer was used for special atmospheric effects in the venue.
Richard Clapton didn’t disappoint, singing his iconic hits and adding some new ones to the playlist as well. With Australian music history making act Axiom, Bailey Judd, Rock Monsters and Masterpiece and the Margaritas rocking the stage the other nights, the large crowd of Harley Fans were dancing and celebrating to the beat of classic rock songs throughout the whole long weekend.
The HOG Rally was finished in traditional style with a Thunder Run on Sunday, with all the club members riding in procession on their Harleys through the streets of Canberra, ending at Gold Creek Village with an outstanding Show and Shine bike show.
ACPS Conference, Canberra
Posted on Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
The Australian Coal Preparation Society (ACPS) held its 14th National Conference ‘Stories from the Coal Face’ in Canberra late last year at Hotel Realm. The official Chairman’s Dinner was the pinnacle of this intensive 4 day event, staged in The Great Hall of Parliament House.
The technical production of both the conference and the official dinner was entrusted to local event production company – Elite Sound & Lighting – Canberra’s leading audiovisual production and installation specialist.
The ‘Elite’ team specified and supplied a full Robe lighting rig which were extensively programmed to deliver some unique and eye catching designs for the event’s speakers as well as the nights entertainers with a 60’s cycadellic theme as the brief.
The lighting rig consisted of 16x Robin 600 LEDWashes used for intense saturated colored room wash effects, 16x Robin 100 LEDBeams for sharp, fast and punchy beam effects and 16x Robin 600E Spots, which were used for beautiful gobo projection on the drape at the back of stage and some great break up looks across the Great Hall.
Controlled by ChamSys MQ 100 Expert console, the lights ‘dressed’ the room into some bold vivid colors and created a great festive spirit inside the venue.
Held every two years, the ACPS conference brings together leading coal preparation companies and personnel to share and learn new and improved processing techniques through a series of world-class presentations. Combined with an exhibition showcasing over 30 of the industry’s leading suppliers, designers, contractors, consultants and technology companies, it is an excellent opportunity to develop new relationships in the mining industry.
Prime Minister’s Pacific Australia Awards
Posted on Wednesday, March 13th, 2013
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard awarded the top university students from Australia, Asia and the Pacific with the Prime Minister’s Australia Award in December last year.
40 Australian and 50 international students had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the academic and social culture of their host country through research, study and work placements, including internship placements for some award holders.
The Award ceremony took place at The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Elite Sound and Lighting were appointed to supply the production of this high profile event, supplying lighting, audio and video technology for the ceremony.
Darren Russell, MD of Elite Sound and Lighting, had his skilled crew behind the production of the evening. The inventory used in the event consisted of VuePix LED screens – L10 & E12 series – for the main visual effects. 17 x VuePix L series panels accompanied the main projection screen on the stage, providing abstract visual elements during the presentations. The E series panels (15 in total) were below the stage as a fascia for additional graphics. The ArKaos A30 Media Server was used to manage the video content through Vision Pro HD Processor.
The stage and the Gandall Hall were illuminated by 6 x Robe Robin MMX Spots, 12x Robe Robin 600 LEDWashes and 1 x Robe Robin 600E Spot, all controlled by a ChamSys MQ 100 Expert console.
The Prime Minister’s Pacific Australia Awards (PMPA Awards) is a program funded by the Australian Federal Government that gives awardees the opportunity to undertake a practical work placement to gain experience and insight into the daily management of an Australian business organisation. The Awards expand the academic experience gained by postgraduate awardees of the Australian Development Scholarships (ADS) and Australian Leadership Award Scholarships (ALAS) programs. This year’s awardees are studying and working in the areas of health, education, food security, infrastructure, mining, trade, climate change, environment, governance and social development.
Foreshore Music Festival, Canberra
Posted on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
The Australian festival lovers met at the end of November in the very heart of Canberra at Commonwealth Park to enjoy the sixth year of the Foreshore Music Festival. The world’s hottest bands and electronic acts assembled together along with an army of true Australian festival die hards who returned to rock the parliamentary triangle again.
The Foreshore 2012 Line up featured world leading DJs and acts such as Tiësto, Calvin Harris, 360, Example, Naughty By Nature, Dash Berlin and many more.
Elite Sound and Lighting – who are considered the ACT’s premier audiovisual production and installation specialist – provided the entire festival production, with the exception of the Kicks Stage audio, including lighting, audio, vision rigging and crowd barriers.
The main two stages featured over 190 Vuepix 12.5mm E-series panels, over 50 Robin Lighting fixtures from Robe, LeMaitre Hazers, SDV Giga Strobes, ChamSys consoles for control, ArKaos A30 Media Server and Vision Pro HD Processors which controlled the video content.
The Main ‘Kicks’ stage featured 157 VuePix E-series LED mesh panels. These new release LED panels from Vuepix provided excellent color uniformity resulting in a brilliant visual performance. The content for the E series panels was streamed through a Vision Pro HD processor. The Robe spec for the main stage included 16x Robin MMX Spots, 12x Robin 600 LEDWashes and 8x Robin 600E Spots,these were all controlled via a ChamSys MQ 200 console + Playback Wing with a MQ 100 Expert console for backup & offline programming. The atmosphere effects for this stage were created by two LeMaitre MVS hazers.
The lighting and visual specs for ‘Hi Top Stage’ included more VuePix E Series video panels and a combination of Robin 600 LEDWashes and Robin 600E Spots accompanied with 8 SDV Giga Strobes and a LeMaitre Star Hazer for speciall effects. All controlled by ChamSys Maxi Wing + Tablet PC. An ArKaos A30 Media server an Vision Pro HD Processor were used to manage all video content.
Foreshore Festival is more than just about the music, it is about the total festival experience at one of the most beautiful and unique festival sites in the country. The 2012 event was the biggest and best show to date and has set a high standard for the years to come.
Mandylights lights Dubai for New Year’s Eve
Posted on Friday, March 1st, 2013
Mandylights lighting designers Richard Neville and Alex Grierson spent a month in Dubai as lighting designers for Dubai’s amazing New Year’s Eve celebrations. The twenty five minute show took place around the centre of Dubai in front of the Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building. Using some three hundred and fifty intelligent fixtures, the pair illuminated the Burj, lake and surrounding precinct which played host to fifteen individual performer stages and a massive two hundred and ten metre long seamless projection screen.
The show’s narrative was based on the important natural and cultural elements of the world and how they all come together. The energy of the elements travel across the world to finally reach their destination at Dubai – the place where people come together in celebration of friendship and cultural understanding. As the energy arrives it erupts in a show of water, fire, light and sound. The show was first performed on New Year’s Eve preceeding the midnight fireworks for a site wide audience of 1.7 million people and accompanied live by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The show then played twice nightly throughout January for the tens of thousands of daily visitors to the new heart of Dubai.
Working on the project for almost six months, Mandylights was thrilled to be a part of the international creative team that put the immersive show together. With only four dress rehearsals before the New Year’s Eve show, the hundreds of lights, flame projectors, seventy nine performers and thousands of programmed water fountains all came together perfectly for a broadcast audience estimated at over 2 billion people. The show was also broadcast live on YouTube around the world.
Lighting was fully visualised and programmed in Australia at Mandylights’ Sydney studio and in a temporary facility in the United Arab Emirates before the two week long installation of fixtures spread around the site. Unique challenges faced by the team included lighting the Burj Khalifa in its entirety from the ground with the team turning to Clay Paky Sharpys and Falcon Beams to wash the building with colour and create a range of special effects that had not been seen before on the 826m high tower. With fixtures located so close to the spectacular Dubai Fountain, custom made waterproof housings were constructed for the Auras and Alpha Beam fixtures, and wireless DMX was utilised extensively around the site to reach the various lake stages spread around the enormous man-made lake.
Mandylights is a dedicated lighting and technical design firm based in Sydney, Australia while operating around the world. The company’s diverse portfolio of events range from the most watched online event ever – the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, to international touring designs for the musical Cats and installation artwork that has appeared around Australia and overseas. In Mandylights’ six year history, projects in some twenty countries have been successfully executed that include design, lighting direction, programming, pre-visualisation, technical direction and crewing.
Lighting Equipment: Clay Paky Sharpy, Martin Aura Wash, Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1500 HPE, Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1500, Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500, Martin Atomic Strobe, Martin Mac301 Wash, Falcon Beam 7kW CMY, Chauvet Color Battens, Chauvet Outdoor LED Pars, GrandMA2 Full Size Console, GrandMA2 Light Console, GrandMA2 NPU, GrandMA1 NSP
Crew
Lighting Designer / Programmer: Richard Neville
Associate Lighting Designer / Programmer: Alex Grierson
Equipment Provider: Eclipse Lighting
Eclipse Project Manager: Tom Ralston
You can read more about this production in the next issue of AV magazine due in mailboxes this week.
ETC and Vari*Lite Saddle Up for War Horse
Posted on Friday, February 15th, 2013
War Horse, the now legendary World War I drama depicting the devotion of a boy to his horse, has moved stage audiences in the UK and US, winning five 2011 Tony Awards. One of the most striking elements of the show is its highly evocative lighting design by Paule Constable who calls lighting ‘the secret language of theatre’. Paule won the 2011 Tony Award for Best Design for A Play for her design work on War Horse.
Australia now has the chance to experience this landmark theatre event with audiences packing Melbourne’s Arts Centre State Theatre night after night. The show will move to Sydney in March followed by Brisbane in July.
The lighting rig, supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems, has a small amount of moving lights for a show of this size; a couple of Vari-Lite 3500 Washes, six Vari-Lite 3000Q Washes, three VL500 Arcs and twelve ETC Revolutions.
“The VL3000 and VL3500 washes with their discharge lamps cut through the large conventional tungsten washes really well,” commented Richard Pacholski, Australian Associate Lighting Designer. “They really make a statement in certain scenes as the show is very tungsten dominated with a lot of PAR cans and 5K fresnels. They really come into their own during Act II, which is the war zone, generating great effects to accompany the sounds and action on stage. The VL500’s are used in a fairly tight beam situation, again cutting through the tungsten looks.”
Richard reports that Paule is a big fan of the ETC Revolution and that they are used in War Horse more like a typical moving light. The majority of the Revolutions are rigged front of house from where they can keylight, picking up action and people.
The largely conventional rig includes sixty ETC Source Four profiles and forty ETC Source Four PARs as well as two-hundred PAR cans. ETC Source Four Ellipsoidal 10° fixtures run as front of house follow spots from the box boom position reinforcing the tungsten look.
For control is an ETC Eos 8000 channel console with an RPU and a separate ETC Gio console was used to program the projection; all of which is now merged together to run off the one console with a RPU back up.
“The Eos and its networking ability has been fantastic ,” remarked Richard. “It’s nice working with a complete system with everything talking to each other. What is really interesting is that we use an ETC I/O gateway for each followspot which means the Eos caps the output level of what the followspot operator is doing yet allows the operator to still dim up and down – they just can’t go past the maximum that we set in a cue. ”
Blake Garner, who programmed the Australian version of War Horse, is a veteran ETC EOS operator who describes the War Horse set up as a good test of the maturity of the networking capabilities of the platform.
“The RPU is the brains of the system – running as the master – while the Eos console is the redundant backup and physical surface for programming and running the show,” he explained. “So the Eos and RPU were running together to have a fully redundant system and then into that system we also had the Gio console which was being used for the video work. We also had three Remote Video Interfaces networked into the system. These are used for independent readouts for the lighting designer, associate LD and video designer. ”
All DMX data is sent through an Ethernet system with Streaming ACN used for all lighting data and Artnet for the video content that goes through a Catalyst media server.
There is also a Show Control gateway, with a lot of MIDI data coming from the sound system triggering sound and lighting effects.
From a networking point of view there are six users: the unmanned primary processor, Blake on a console, the video programmer on a console, and the three RVI’s – all operating independently as required whilst sharing the same show file.
“So we had six users during the programming periods but, once we were done, we didn’t have to do anything to the show file to consolidate everything down to the one surface for one operator,” added Blake. “It’s a great networking system that I believe could handle anything you throw at it. It was also very easy to set up – just a matter of setting the basic networking settings on the consoles, going through setting a different user on each console and we were done. ”
Blake describes the ETC Eos as a very theatrical console ideal for War Horse, further commenting that the structure and the way it phrases the lights is very natural to lighting designers in the theatre environment.
“You don’t have to try translate what they want into the way the console thinks as the two are one and the same,” he said. “There have been many times when I’ve realised a lot of thought has been put into various options offered by the Eos. At first glance it doesn’t always seem to be what I want but once you start doing more complex things, you realise that is the right way to do it and it all starts coming together nicely.”
Summafieldayze Vibes
Posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
Summafieldayze – The most popular marathon dance music festival on the Gold Coast calendar ,pumped up the crowds of revellers at the Spit at the beginning of January. The festival featured some of the most prominent names in the electronic music scene ,including Chemical Brothers with a custom-designed show, live renegade M.I.A, Fedde Le Grand, Mark Ronson, Hot CHip, The Faders, Kimbra and many more, the Gold Cost crowds welcomed in the new year with style!
Clifton Productions were once again the main supplier of lighting and video technology for 3 main stages of this monster event. Those featured all together over 200 of VuePix panes and 150 Robe moving lights.
The centrepiece of Stage 1 designed for MIA as a highlight of the evening was an extensive VuePix video wall consisting of 96 x P18 panels. Accompanied by 22x Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs, 8x ColorWash 2500E ATs and 18x Robin 600 Beams. Sixteen additional ILED LEDPar fixtures were also included in the rig.
The second stage was custom designed for the unique Chemical Brother’s DJ show . It featured 88 x VuePix P18 panels, streaming original content specifically for the legendary British DJ duo. The lighting rig consisted of 22x Robe ColorSpot 1200E AT fixtures, 30x Robin 600 LEDWashes and 8x Robin 600 Beams.
The “Hot Chip “concept designed stage featured 30x P18 VuePix panels, 12 Robin 600 LEDWashes, 16x ColorWash 2500E ATs and 13x ColorSpot 2500E ATs. All of those controlled by ChamSys MQ 100 console + wing and V4 Catalyst for media control.
Those who came to join the sea of shirtless men and scantily clad ladies enjoyed a great evening with some of the world’s best electronic music. The festival goers stayed enthusiastically grooving well in to the night, leaving a little less polished and a little more sunburnt.
Martin MAC Vipers Operatic Debut
Posted on Friday, February 8th, 2013
For the second year running, Victorian Opera staged a pantomime for children at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne. Their 2013 production of Sleeping Beauty saw the return of the creative team behind Victorian Opera’s first pantomime Cinderella, with set design by Julie Nelson and lighting by Richard Vabre.
The lighting was supplied by Resolution X with eight Martin MAC Vipers making their operatic debut in Australia!
“I had been eager to use Martin MAC Vipers for some time and so I pitched the idea to Richard Vabre,” said Peter Darby, Technical Coordinator for Victorian Opera. “He was very keen too and used them throughout the show specifically for some fantastic gobo washes across the stage. The Viper’s multiple gobo wheels are great for this. I was very pleased with their performance; they’re very punchy, fast and bright. I also found them to be fairly quiet which is important for operatic use.
“Both Richard Vabre and myself were really happy with the Vipers and can’t wait to use them again.”
Two JEM Glaciators supplied the low fog effects and looked amazing in combination with the Vipers.
Situated on the front truss were a couple of Clay Paky 1500 Profiles described by Peter as a terrific unit. Also in the rig were twenty-six Martin MAC TW1s, one lonely MAC550 Profile, two Atomic strobes, Glasson LEDS Bulbs and many conventionals.
Peter programmed the show on a MA 2 console with his MA command wing as a tracking backup run through an MA NPU.
Photos: Jeff Busby
The 2012 Swimmer of the Year Awards
Posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2013
The 2012 Swimmer of the Year Awards were held at the Melbourne Museum in November 2012. Event Managers Great Big Events hired production company Austage Melbourne to provide production management for the event.
Matt Wilson took the helm as Production Manager overseeing all technical aspects of the event including two circular projection screens, a widescreen three projector blend, camera crew, and audio for presenters plus two entertainment acts.”
Freelance LD Ben Webb was hired to specify and design a suitable lighting rig, and to program and operate the event. Ben’s rig included 10 x Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500, 10 x Martin MAC301 LED Wash, 6 x Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700, 20 x Source4 Jnr Profiles (w/ breakup gobos, 10 x Selecon Pacific 23 – 50 Profiles, 10 x Selecon Rama 1.2k Fresnels, 20 x Pro Shop LED Cans, 12 x Pro Shop LED Strips, 1 x GrandMA Full-size console, 3 x Jands DD8 data splitter and a DF50.
“I use Resolution X equipment whenever possible in Melbourne, and I was lucky on this occasion they offered me a free upgrade from Alpha Profile 700s to the mighty 1500s,” commented Ben.”Thankfully there was plenty of overhead in the rigging and power supply department.
“With an oddly shaped main stage and thrust, along with two other semi-circle stages, plenty of shaping and careful focusing was required hence the use of Selecon Pacific and Source4 fixtures. They offer very precise adjustments, and I know they won’t start ‘drooping’ when the yolks heat up half way through the event.
“It’s always great working with Matty (Wilson), he has an enormous wealth of knowledge and even under high-pressure situations I’ve never seen him break a sweat.”
Event Management: Great Big Events
Production Management: Austage (Matt Wilson)
Audio Visual Supplier: Austage Melbourne
Lighting Designer: Ben Webb
Lighting Supplier: Resolution X
Surfmoot 2013
Posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2013
What do you get when you add a 400 cubic metre temporary scaffold stage, 200 fixtures, a 100KVA generator, 10 eager new crew and event management, 1000 18-26 year olds, 3 nights of entertainment, a bit of rain, a bush fire and heaps of dust?
You get Surfmoot 2013, a 4 day event run by the Scout Association of Australia, Victorian Branch, Rover section over the Australia Day weekend. Held annually at Camp Eumerella near Anglesea, the camp featured dozens of daytime activities with the evenings activities centered around the main stage and arena. These included DJ’s, a cover band, acoustic performances, physical challenges and presentations.
The Scout Technical Activity Group Entertainment (S.T.A.G.E.) provided the volunteer crew of Scouting members and arranged the lighting and sound equipment hire.
The lighting brief was simple. Face light and a bit of colour and movement. The team from S.T.A.G.E. saw it as an opportunity to provide their young crew with a wide variety of learning experiences. The areas taught included LX design, paperwork, gear prep, rigging, 110V patching, data distribution, cabling, load balancing, dome opping and programming.
The gear list included 40 x 110V PAR64, 42 x LED PARs, 36 x Pinspots, 3 x 1200W PC, 12 x QI’s, 10 x Mole Fay Duets, 4 x Martin EFX700, 1 x Selecon Pacific Followspot, 30 x Fusion Bars, 6 x MAC700 Profiles, 6 x ClayPaky Miniscans, Giga Strobes, JEM ZR44 Fogger, DF50 hazer, LSC Dimmers, Distro and data splitters, Pathport and a new LSC Clarity LX600 Console.
The equipment was generously supplied by long term supporter of Scouting, Resolution X. The Clarity console was donated by LSC Lighting. LD Peter Gray commented, “Clarity was chosen as we needed a console suited to busking. The PC version allowewd our team to have hands on experience of this new console prior to the event . At the gig several unexpected operators from Stagepass Production Systems were able to learn it within minutes. Even with the large amount of dust in the air, the console and all other gear performed well.”
The results were well received by the attendees and the artists. It was essentially four rigs in one. A rock and roll PARcan and pinspot rig, an LED colour wash, Fusion bars for eye candy and a moving light rig. To add a further challenge, parts of the rig were rehung to a second design for the final night. There’s no doubt that attempting such a gig with so many onsite challenges and limitations may be seen as foolish. To the Scouts it was a challenge worth accepting. To the credit of all who worked tirelessly on the show including the organizing committee and audio teams, the visual results and the knowledge learnt show that it was a huge success.
LD: Peter Gray
Associate LD: Callum Walker
S.T.A.G.E: Mark Hopkins
Surfmoot Liaison: Dale Sheehan
Resolution X: Nick Rutherford
LSC: Richie Mickhan
ArKaos and VuePix for Big Brother Australia
Posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2013
Lighting designer Francesco Calvi has been pushing buttons and turning dials behind the scenes of the re launched Big Brother TV Show, creating exciting visual effects and lighting for the ninth series of this reality television experiment.
The Big Brother house is located within the Dreamworld precinct on Queensland’s Gold Coast and all the live shows and special episodes were broadcast from the TV Studio located within the complex. Calvi specified the lighting design and created the customized video content for all of the live shows.
Using ArKaos Media Master Pro 2 and Media Master Pro 3 for the live Video Streaming, he had an opportunity to implement the newly released Video Mapping module into his designs. The LED tubes on the walls of the live show studio were pixel mapped using the latest version of Arkaos Media Master 2.
A VuePix P25 LED screen was used as the pupil of the Iconic Big Brother Eye built into the back of the set, together with another hi-resolution screen to capture all the dynamic video content produced by Calvi. The ArKaos software enabled Francesco to stream the same media content to both LED walls seamlessly despite them being different resolutions, pitches and sizes.
Francesco was very happy with the overall results produced. He comments: “ArKaos Video Mapper gave me great flexibility when working on my designs and allowed me to bring my lighting shows to different levels. Using the MediaMaster Pro nonstop for over 3 months, the computer actually died and needed to be replaced at one point, while the software was reliable throughout all the series”.
The Latest Big Brother series was produced and broadcasted by the Nine Network. It continued to receive high TV ratings throughout the whole series.
Mandylights at the 2013 Australian Country Music Awards
Posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
Mandylights supplied visual design and technical production management for country music’s night of nights in Tamworth on Australia Day. In recent years, the Golden Guitars have enjoyed a surge in both popularity and attendance – this year attracting a full house at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre while playing host to twelve fantastic performances.
Continuing a great working relationship with awards producers Whatever, Mandylights’ Daniel Mercer worked as technical director with suppliers TDC (Video) Resolution X (Lighting) and Norwest (Audio) while Richard Neville came on board as visual designer; creating the lighting, custom video and a large part of the scenic for the event.
In an effort to steer the award show’s visual appearance away from the now standard big LED screens look, the show’s design by Julio Himede and Richard saw the construction of sixty rendered rusted corrugated panels which were hung in a checkerboard fashion across the back of the stage. Completely customised video content was then mapped onto the panels and matched with lighting fixtures both in front of and behind the set. Mandylights built the set, created and managed all CAD for the event and then built the show’s custom video content in house. Content included clips made up of hundreds of Australian road signs for Lee Kernaghan’s ‘Ute Me’ performance (pictured).
Clint Dulieu operated the show’s Coolux Servers which were provided by TDC. In order to maintain total control over the video looks, Clint’s servers were responsible for the playback of all awards video content and packages which enabled the creative team to grade and manipulate the show’s visuals to fit in with the scenic design and overall look of the show at any time.
In keeping with the company’s concept of keeping all stages of production design, direction and installation in house, Mandylights’ Michael Gearin managed lighting systems and crew for the event, working closely with Resolution X’s team who provided a faultless lighting rig for the event.
The show was a great hit in Tamworth with a fantastic response from both the organisers and general public.
Production Credits
Technical Director: Daniel Mercer
Visual Designer: Richard Neville
Video Programmer: Clint Dulieu
Lighting Systems: Michael Gearin
Lighting Crew: Andreas Romanowski, Tom Wright
Suppliers
Lighting: Resolution X
Video: TDC
Audio: Norwest
Photo Credits: Andreas Romanowski
For More Information and Photos: www.facebook.com/mandylights
GRB Lighting invest in Martin MAC101’s and MAC Auras
Posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013
GRB Lighting has expanded its inventory with the purchase of twenty-four Martin MAC101 and six Martin MAC Auras.
As soon as the new Martin gear arrived it was deployed to the Stereosonic music festival where GRB were supplying the light for three stages: Hard Stage, Paris Social and V Energy Local Stage. The Hard Stage featured 24 x MAC101’s, 8 x Jarags, 8 x MAC250 Entours, 2 x MAC600, 6 x Atomic strobes and 12 x MAC 2000. Paris Social utilised 6 x MAC Auras, 8 x Sunstrips, 6 x Atomic strobes, 6 x Atomic Colours and 6 x MAC600’s. V Energy Local Stage comprised of 12 x Pro Shop LED PARs, 8 x Pro Shop LED strips and 2 x Atomic strobes. All truss was by Design Quintessence.
Remarkably small and super light, the MAC 101 is an LED moving head wash light that features a tight and very bright beam, rapid movement and calibrated colours with a low price tag. It is small enough to fit inside a piece of truss and weighs only 3.7 kg. Exceptionally easy to rig, power can be daisy-chained between fixtures for less cable mess and hassle.
“We found that the Martin MAC101’s were continually being specified by our clients and consequently we met the market requirements,” said Greg Butt, managing director of GRB Lighting. “In fact we found it got to the point where everything we were doing required MAC101’s. They are an awesome little fixture for the price and very effective. They are completely reliable, great bang for buck – just fantastic!”
The MAC Aura is a compact single-lens LED moving head wash light with zoom. It includes a broad colour palette with RGBW colour mixing, uniform shades, 11 to 58° zoom, with aura eye-candy effects. Additionally the Aura includes a consumption of 1 amp that allows for high efficiency on the road, but low consumption.
GRB’s Martin MAC Auras were purchased after a thorough search of the market. Greg soon discovered that their output, zoom, speed of movement, colour mixing coupled with their size and cost is unparalleled.
“At that stage we had no LED wash in our inventory and after a lot of debating we decided to go with the Auras,” commented Greg. “They were the best product and best price! We really like their zoom, colour temperature, the added white LED and once again, it’s a product we’ve seen grow in demand.”
The MAC Aura is unique in that it incorporates two independent colour systems in one luminaire – multicolour beam LEDs and a backlight LED lens array. The two colour systems can be mixed and matched to create new looks and effects.
Greg has been so impressed by his Martin MAC Auras, he has already ordered some more and states that even more should be purchased this year as well as some Martin Vipers!
Martin M2GO and MAC Auras join the Circus
Posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2013
Every year, each of the final year Bachelor of Circus Arts students at the National Institute of Circus Arts creates a circus act as their graduating piece and these acts collectively form the annual Circus Showcase.
Graduates hope to follow in the footsteps of NICA alumni, employed internationally by Cirque du Soleil, Dragone and La Clique New York and London. Otherwise, here in Australia big companies pay good money for artists to entertain at client functions.
Eduard Ingles, Technical Manager at NICA, is on hand to help the students with the technical side of the production. Also, as a designer he creates a different and particular lighting state, or states, to suit their requirements.
When designing lighting for circus, there are special considerations to take to account with safety one of the most important issues for circus artists. Performers cannot be dazzled by lights and they need to see the stage and their apparatus at all times. The delicate balance between aesthetics and safety is probably the biggest challenge for a designer.
NICA has its own equipment, however, they hire special equipment, such as moving lights, LED strips and special effects depending on the show requirements.
For the Circus Showcase, Show Technology’s Simon Barrett suggested that Eduardo try the Martin MAC Aura as well as a Martin M2GO console.
” I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the MAC Aura,” commented Eduardo. “The MAC Aura is very bright, has a quick response and the colour rendering is impressive. However the feature that impressed me the most was the 11-58 degree zoom.”
Eduardo has worked with a wide range of lighting consoles including grandMA, Jands Hog 100, Strand Palette and ETC Avab Congo, but he was amazed by the simplicity of the M2GO.
“NICA is considering purchasing a new lighting console and I wanted to trial the new Martin console,” he said. “The M2GO is a magnificent lighting console! It is really easy to program and is very good at controlling intelligent fixtures. The colour mixing is fantastic.
“The M2GO has many interesting features but I would like to highlight the “common parameters control” for multiple fixtures and the “colour selection system”.
The M2GO is small in size but has large capabilities, particularly the four universes. Also it’s really good value for what it offers.”
Photos by David Wyatt.
Chameleon Touring Lights Brisbane Festival with LumenRadio
Posted on Monday, January 14th, 2013
To celebrate Australia’s annual 30-night Brisbane Festival last fall, 3000 square metres of brilliant lighting, visible for over 10 kilometres, lit up downtown Brisbane’s business district. Sponsored by Santos GLNG City of Lights and designed by John Rayment, the festival’s spectacular lighting was provided and installed by Chameleon Touring Systems of Sydney and Brisbane.
The challenging urban venue of three skyscrapers, a 20×50-metre floating barge, and a freeway overpass constituted three distinct lighting and control domains. Eighteen Panther 7k searchlights blazed from the city’s tallest buildings. The barge and freeway systems featured 18 additional searchlights, and 210 moving lights.
A LumenRadio system, recommended and supplied to Chameleon by TMB, distributed control data wirelessly to all lighting elements of the event. A lighting controller located on the barge linked to four Dual Universe RDM Transmitters broadcasting to eight LumenRadio Outdoor Slim Receivers controlling the moving lights. An additional universe in the wireless system controlled Syncrolites under the freeway overpass. FOH wireless was also transmitted 339 metres to a Single Universe Outdoor Flex atop the Brisbane Square building. A Dual Universe RDM Transmitter then relayed the signals another 288 metres to two RDM Indoor Receivers located in the Casino Towers and Mineral House buildings.
“LumenRadio Systems were perfect for this complex event,” says Chameleon’s Project Manager Brian O’Conner. “This was our first crack at this gig, so it had to be right, first time and every time. During two weeks of setup and programming, plus four show weeks, LumenRadio always performed flawlessly. To say the clients were pleased is an understatement. LumenRadio exceeded our expectations, and by extension, preserved our 24-year reputation for excellence.”
Chameleon’s Managing Director Tony Davies remarks, “LumenRadio is so simple to use, even our guys in Queensland could figure it out! Seriously, given the many challenges associated with cityscape lighting on this scale, our guys did a remarkable job – and so did LumenRadio.”
Paul Collison ramps Nitro Circus Live up with Martin VC-Dot 4
Posted on Friday, January 11th, 2013
Martin Professional’s new VC-Dot™ LED string was used to dynamically line the 14-meter high “Giganta” take off ramp on Nitro Circus Live’s recent European tour. Used for accent lighting on the edge of the ramp, the lightweight strings of individually controllable LED Dots provided a host of advantages for lighting designer Paul Collision.
In the past, Paul says, the “Giganta” ramp, which is used for freestyle BMX, skate and other things with wheels, has been edged with LED tubes.
“These have looked fine,” he says, “but they take an enormous amount of time to set up. They are also quite fragile. I had a long search to find the right product and ultimately the VC-Dot was the product I always came back to. It ticked all the right boxes and was visually different from the previous effect, but many say an improvement.”
The VC-Dots are available with 1, 4 or 9 LEDs per pixel and come in an RGB color mixing version or cool, medium, or warm white single color versions. Used on the Nitro Circus Live ramp was the VC-Dot 4™ RGB version.
Controllable via DMX or by Martin’s family of award-winning P3 System Controllers, the VC-Dots are an extremely easy setup compared to similar products and involve no DMX pixelmapping, loose power supplies, excessive cabling or time-consuming addressing procedures.
“It was quick to set up and would take only 15 minutes for two people to run out. In the past, the ramp lighting had taken 3 hours to do with two people,” Paul says, who came on board after another designer had completed a long stint with the show.
“Usually the tour takes a leisurely pace with two set-up days before the first show day. On this tour, for the first time, the shows were set up, completed, and pulled down all in one day. The VC-Dot was also a very light weight package, meaning we could fly it in and out without spending huge amounts of money on transport.”
Paul used 100 meters of the VC-Dot and ran it from a P3-PC System Controller from a laptop at FOH. “We took no care to get the same strings in the same places each day, as the process of re-mapping the pixel map was so fast it hardly seemed worth it.”
Paul chose to use domed white caps to soften the LED source and increase the viewing angle. “I was slightly concerned we would lose too much output,” he says, “but in the end I needn’t have worried. They looked fantastic and were often commented on.”
Other Martin gear used on the show was four MAC III Profiles™ for gobo projection. Lighting vendor for the tour was Neg Earth from the UK. “Their gear was not only exceptionally maintained, but came with the most professional crews I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with,” Paul concludes.
www.martin.com
Australian Distributor: Show Technology www.showtech.com.au
Missy Higgins tours with Martin MAC Vipers
Posted on Monday, December 24th, 2012
Missy Higgins has been touring the country with her ‘The Razzle Dazzle Summer Tour’ lit by Kait Hall using a Resolution X rig.
Kait took the opportunity to bring Res X’s new Martin MAC Vipers on the road, eight in total, to predominantly light the backdrops and she wasn’t disappointed.
“The MAC Vipers worked really well,” Kait noted. “The thing that appealed most to me was that they have a good range of gobos. Everyone has been waiting for a new Martin high end profile fixture so it was a good opportunity for me to test them out. I like what they do optically and they’re really punchy so I’ll definitely be using them again.”
Kait described her seventeen Martin MAC700 spots and seventeen MAC700 washes as the workhorses in the rig, “They’re just a reliable fixture that you can count on to still be working by the end of the tour and that’s exactly what happened.”
Nine Clay Paky 700 HPE fixtures were used as profiles for Missy and the band members.
“I’d never toured with these before and I wanted something a little bit different to the MAC700’s,” explained Kait. “Their dimming curves are very subtle and I liked using them for all the band wash. I also had eight Clay Paky Sharpy and nine Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700 split between the floor and the air. You have to be very careful where you place them and how you use them – this show is very focussed on the artwork and banners so I just used the beams as highlights in particular songs. They were great as accent lights for the more upbeat songs.”
Instead of taking two full size MA Lighting consoles on the road, Kait toured a grandMA2 light as her main console and a Command Wing as her backup.
“It ended up being the smarter option as it meant that for the festival shows I could take it back to the hotel room to pre-program stuff and I could also carry it on the plane if needed,” she commented. “It was really handy to have and was pretty indispensable – certainly the way to tour these days!”
Fergal O’Sullivan was Kait’s tech on the road.