New presenter Great British Bake Off host Mel Giedroyc is stamping her humour and personality on the show, directed for the sixth year by characteristically acerbic judge Craig Revel Horwood, and it's being hailed as the most exciting and 'best yet' live rendition of the BBC's blockbusting series which features seven celebrities and their professional dancing partners.
While Richard G Jones returned to add style and elegance to the lighting design, joining Craig in the judging hot seats are Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli. The tour's technical direction is once again co-ordinated by Andy Gibbs.
The BMFL Factor has brought a massive new energy and edge to lighting the show, due to the substantial investment in new Robe BMFL Washes and Blades by Sonalyst, following on from their purchase of BMFL Spots in 2015, which were also specified for the 2015 tour. This was hugely successful and such was the power of the new Robe fixtures that the designer reduced the overall number of fixtures.
Fifty BMFL Washes, 32 x BMFL Blades and 48 x BMFL Spots are deployed on the 2016 rig, together with 25 x Robe MMX Spots, 18 x MMX WashBeams and 30 x ColorBeam 700s - the latter in silver housings around the perimeter of the dancefloor.
The bulk of the BMFL Blades are rigged on a diamond shaped truss over the main dancefloor and utilised for all the 'specials' as well as being worked into highlighting the judges and presenter areas, and also for the elimination sequence at the end, a task for which they also replace previous older fixtures that were unreliable.
The MMX Spots and MMX WashBeams are rigged on the famous Strictly LED arches where they light the band and provide backlight, floor fill and general eye-candy behind the judge's area. There are also some MMX Spots on the deck and at the bottom of the video arches.
The lightshow was programmed by Chris Hurst onto a grandMA2 light console ... and looking after it day-to-day on the road is Alex Murphy.
(Jim Evans)
