The lighting for the project was designed by noted concert and event lighting designer Durham Marenghi, whose other work ranges from the opening of London St Pancras Station to the London 2012 Handover at the Beijing Olympics, through his architectural design firm Lumitect. White Light was selected to realise his design by Nürburgring and their project manager Philip Hartley of PHA for its ability to bring an experienced theatrical eye to the project while attending to the practicalities of installing and programming the lighting, dimming, infrastructure and control systems.
"The particular challenge of Ring°Werk was that lighting was used to bring life to every part of the visitor centre, not just within each ride or display area," comments Simon Needle, White Light's project manager for Nürburgring. "Even something as seemingly simple as a queuing area for the roller coaster has sequences of coloured lights racing up and down the queue. The interactive areas themselves were more complex still - such as the interactive game show where the winner of each racing question gets a moving spotlight focused on them. Each section required installation and then programming to create the desired effect; White Light took care of all of this."
The equipment supplied to Nürburgring was a carefully designed mixture of theatrical lighting equipment, automated lighting equipment, UV and other effects equipment, and architectural lighting products, including both lighting fixtures and contemporary architectural lighting fittings. All of the equipment was prepared by White Light in London before travelling to Germany for installation. To control the rig, White Light installed LSC EKO dimmer racks including both dimmer and switching modules; networked together these provide system feedback and fault reporting at any location onsite, or even away from site via remote login.
Two particularly complex parts of the installation were the automated Motor Mania laser ride, where moving lights were timed to move with the visitor's automated cars, and the Grüne Hölle - Green Hell, the name given to the track by driver Jackie Stewart because of the way it winds through the forest - which has the audience in a central seating block rotating as scenery, video, lighting, lasers and atmospheric effects including smoke, heat, rain and scent travel past them, telling the history of the racetrack. The lighting rig for this section is suspended from two circular trusses; the show's complex programming now allows it to run as a fully automated, time-code controlled sequence that runs for three minutes and repeats automatically day-in and day-out.
"It was a pleasure to work with White Light on this project as it gave me the confidence to know that the fixtures would turn up in good condition, be quickly and accurately rigged and that the programming and playback systems would be appropriate and effective." notes Durham Marenghi. "The moving light elements were made up from fixtures from Clay Paky and whilst these are inherently very reliable you need a good installation team to know that they will still be running effectively in the years to come."
"The RingWerk project was a challenge for all concerned and, as you would expect, White Light rose to that challenge." comments Phil Hartley, project manager, RingWerk Attraction Fit Out. "All aspects of the delivery of their scope of works, from competitive pricing, quality of product, attention to detail and the commitment of their personnel was of the very highest standard. During the high points, and the low points, they were a significant contributor to the team effort, great su
