Part of the new Samsung Diamond League, a series of the top 14 grand prix meets from around the world, the Aviva London Grand Prix featured in a BBC2 broadcast with event production by Fast Track on behalf of UKA, and broadcast facilities by SIS Live.
Stage Electrics, which has been involved in the event for the past six years, supplemented the installed lighting with broadcast quality lighting across the stadium's bowl, to the levels specified by lighting designer John King.
In addition, specially phased equipment was required along the 100m straight to provide flicker-free lighting for the BBC's super-slow-motion broadcast cameras. Stage Electrics project manager Andy Loveday said, "Each lamp must be on the correct phase to match the sine wave of the voltage so that as the super-slow-motion camera tracks the runners there's no visible flicker."
For the stadium lighting, the team which has extensive live sports lighting experience including the Commonwealth Games, installed a mixture of Philips Optivision flood fixtures and Philips Arenavision units. Eight fixtures were mounted atop each of the four 55 metre high lighting towers, with another 20 for the 100m straight.
"This was a summer event and the amount of supplementary lighting reflects that," adds Loveday. "For autumn events or those which run into the late evening we supply up to 14 fixtures per tower." The company also provided technical support during throughout event for the live broadcast engineering team.
After plotting the lighting coverage in pre-production, using Philips Calculux software, the Stage Electrics team installed the complete rig in two days and focused the night before the Grand prix to achieve the correct lux level in all the key areas specified.
Adds Loveday: "It's a longstanding contract for a prestigious event and we're very proud of it."
(Jim Evans)
