ADJ goes for gold at Children’s Winter Games
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While the Games are all about exceptional sporting achievement and fostering the exchange of ideas between athletes from different countries and cultures, it’s also about putting on a memorable show for the spectators. And that’s where ADJ comes in.
Having worked with the historic Olympic Centre on countless competitions, lighting designer Eric Wilson was brought in to deliver an epic lightshow for the Children’s Winter Games opening ceremony, jumping at the chance to work on a prestigious sporting event that was headed to the US for the very first time.
Part of the challenge for Eric was translating the event’s ethos and themes into a lightshow, while considering the practicalities and limitations of lighting a large 8000-capacity venue. A long-time user, he called on a wide range of ADJ’s versatile fixtures and controllers to actualize his vision for the opening celebrations.
Inside the large arena, 12 ADJ Vizi BSW 300s and 12 ADJ Vizi Beam RXONEs formed the crux of the lighting setup. The ceremony was laid out in a horseshoe shape, with a central facade and truss archway forming the visual focus for the audience up in the bleachers. To ensure enough coverage across this large space, Eric placed the moving heads up in the bleachers, spacing them out approximately every eight feet.
“The moving heads ran all the way round the horseshoe,” explained Eric. “We used the BSWs for a combination of tight washes and wider washes with a prism effect. So we did shoot a Gobo, but we used the prism to blur it and then added rotation, creating this unique water effect – so much more than just a straight wash! I am also very familiar with the capabilities of the RXONEs, so I knew that the tight 3-degree beam angle would do exactly what I wanted for aerials.”
The Vizi BSW 300s and Vizi Beam RXONEs accomplished a big-impact display, with the former washing the ice in lush colours – drawing on its potent 300W output and variable 18 ~ 26-degree wash beam angle – and the latter creating stunning mid-air effects thanks to its super-sharp 3-degree beam angle, smooth micro-stepped movement and choice of 14 colours plus white and 15 GOBOs plus spot. But when it came to the Vizi BSW 300s, the role they played went even further.
“The BSW 300 is an incredibly versatile unit and we used it predominantly for the washes. But, because it is a hybrid fixture, it also offered us so much more. When the torch came in, we used them to create a search light effect, and that looked pretty damn cool,” Eric reported. “When I designed this event, that was kind of the idea; I needed to be able to light up the athletes on the ice as well as create aerial effects, and the BSWs could cover both jobs.”
By getting creative with his lighting setup, Eric was able to put the versatility and power of ADJ lighting to highly effective use without breaking the bank. His goal was to generate a stunning lightshow that really captured the themes and ethos of the International Children’s Winter Games – and, with ADJ’s help, he did just that.
(Jim Evans)
