The crowd was not only treated to hearing Bentley's new single Black, but GMA host Lara Spencer also took the stage to announce the first two CMA Award Winners: Music Video of the Year to Chris Stapleton for Fire Away and Musical Event of the Year to Dierks Bentley and Elle King for Different For Girls.
In addition to ensuring that the lighting aided in energizing the early morning crowd and conveyed excitement to the millions of viewers watching at home, lighting designer Mark Carver took special consideration that the performance, while early, would still be taking place with the sun starting to shine, choosing LED fixtures that would give both colour and texture.
"We had to make sure we had adequate front key lighting and backlighting for the cameras as well in order to create separation and dimension," Carver said. "You always have to be conscious of the position of the sun in order to try to back fill the shadows created."
Bandit Lites supplied its exclusive GRNLite LED Pars, Lycian M2 Spots, Chroma Q Color Force 72's, GLP X4S fixtures, Ayrton Magic Blades, Martin MAC Auras and a Grand MA 2 Lite console for control.
"Mark has involved us with the CMA Good Morning America event for longer than I can recall, and the CMA Award week would simply not be the same without this element," said Bandit's vice president, Mike Golden. "Mark and the folks at ABC have this so dialed in we were able to produce this event with only two days of notice."
Carver referred to his experience with Bandit Lites as 'flawless,' adding, "Mike and project manager Don Lockridge provided a very well prepped and prepared lighting package with everything needed for the event. Robin Ringer (programmer) and Adam McIntosh provided the onsite technical support and had the lighting package 100 percent and optimum for the show. As always the system met all expectations."
(Jim Evans)
