The heart of the event was the castle of Brescia (photo: Daniele Davino)
Italy - A2A organised an event to celebrate Bergamo Brescia, Italian Capital of Culture 2023. Light is Life was born with a double awareness: the first was an environmental purpose, aiming to involve the territory's productive energies and use renewable sources; the second had a social aspect, through its support for Banco dell'Energia, a foundation of philanthropic organisations with the objective of helping people in difficulty by carrying out projects linked to the fight against energy poverty.
The festival, powered by renewable energy sources and installations designed according to energy efficiency criteria, took place in various symbolic locations in the city which took on the role of open-air art galleries. The heart of the event was the castle of Brescia, a fortification of medieval origin, erected on the Cidneo Hill, in which no less than 15 lighting installations were set up.
Lighting designer, Daniele Davino, opted for 26 Ayrton Cobra laser-sourced lighting fixtures which he termed "a unique projector on the market, with an impressive brightness and cleanliness of light despite being IP65. One of the very few Ultra Beams on the market to guarantee outdoor operation in rain or snow".
Ayrton's Cobra fixtures were positioned on the walls of the Cidneo Castle, right at the public entrance, facing the city centre, and therefore with their beams of light clearly visible and with excellent results even from a great distance. Another six Cobra fixtures were used in the loopholes of a tunnel, hidden, so that only a beam of light was let out. "It was a very hostile environment due to the high humidity and exposure to possible rain and water run-off...I could only use a well-made IP65 projector...the Cobra," says LD Davino.
"The intention behind the projectors positioned on the walls of the Castle was to integrate the effects generated by an Ultra Beam moving head into a high-impact reception show for the visitors, which included the passage through a tunnel with dynamic pixels and architectural lighting, all synchronised to a Timecode audio track.
“I assigned the task of generating aerial effects to the Cobras, creating a luminous roof with the power and definition of the laser matrix, and ground effects, exploiting the entire zoom and three-colour range," continued Davino.
"In addition to its reliability, which is a key factor in an outdoor show, the Cobra is certainly unrivalled in terms of brightness and light clarity. The 170mm lens is also an added value, generating an extremely visible and impressive beam. I am sure I would not have achieved the same results with any other moving head, both in terms of overall brightness and reliability, especially in an uncertain season like February.
"The technicians who were not familiar with the product really asked me a lot of questions. They were all very impressed not only by the brightness and the reliability, but also with the really low power consumption and light weight for an IP65. The pan-tilt movements are fast, as are the steps of the stepper motors, all of which are a sign of great build quality.”
The Ayrton projectors were supplied by Angelo Pelliccioli Service, with material from Mister X.

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