The stunning opening ceremony included mass choreography, live music, boats, giant floating sculptures, projection mapping, pyrotechnics and more to tell the incredible story of the North East, featuring a creative team who have previously worked on the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Opening Ceremonies.
Aurora Lighting Hire provided lighting facilities for the event working with lighting designer Oli Richards, assisted by associate lighting designer, Seb Williams. Working closely with the design team was production electrician John Nowell and Aurora project manager Sam Crook.
Oli Richards commented, "With such a large scale, ambitious project the main challenge was transforming the Quayside into a stage whilst trying to encompass the rest of the site, which is just over a mile in circumference. Combining this with the relatively short pre-production time of four months, we had our work cut out.
"As soon as I was asked to be part of the project I knew I would need a very good associate. Seb Williams was the perfect choice, I've never worked with someone so thoroughly dedicated to a project and the team he put together was incredible.
"For the design, all of the 550 fixtures we used either had to be IP56 rated or have a weather dome, this dictated my choices greatly. Also as filling the site with haze was not an option, we had to rely on "mother nature" to supply us with a night time mist. This was the reason for using a large amount of Clay Paky Sharpys, I can't think of another fixture that needs next to no haze to create a beam.
"The fact that the Tyne River runs right through the middle of the site also proved a challenge. The three bridges that spanned the river were also part of the performance and had to open and close on cue. Because of this I chose to attached flexible LED ribbon to the entire length of the Millennium and the Swing Bridges, this provided a bold statement whilst keeping equipment weight and power requirements on the bridges at a minimum."
Seb Williams had his own challenges following the initial design brief which included the practicalities of linking the 1.6km circuit around the Newcastle and Gateshead Quaysides.
Seb commented "This was achieved with a ring of 300 I-PIX BB4 and Pulsar Chromaflood LED fixtures and over 800m of LED flex across the bridges. Along with this were 100 Clay Paky Sharpys in weather domes, along both sides of the river. All of which needed to be rigged taking into account handrails, bollards and other street furniture along the Quaysides. On the Newcastle side this required half the lamps to be placed on counterweighted scaffold bases designed by Sam Crook at Aurora."
The Quayside system was also complimented by 12 Martin Mac Quantums, 32 Vari-Lite VL3500 Washes, 36 SGM P-5 Washes, 108 PAR 64 Cans, 18 Source Fours and 48 ACLs for the La Fura Uroboro Ariel crane act.
Meanwhile on the Main Stage Aurora supplied lighting and rigging in the way of 40 Clay Paky Sharpys, 10 Martin MAC Auras, 42 PAR 64s and Litec QX30S trussing for the artists which included Sting, Mark Knoplfer, The Unthanks and Chase and Status.
The data control network was designed and built by Richard Shout who specified an ArtNet solution using a fibre backbone and over 1.2km of fibre optic cable. The system worked flawlessly and allowed for console operator Russ Grubiak and Chase and Status LD Andy Hurst to work seamlessly.
The lighting team consisted of Daniel Bocking, Steve Cameron, Jim Driscoll, Barry Evans, Alberto Felisatti, David Francis, Will Gallegos, Erlwin de Gans, Rob Gardner, Ben Houghton, Tim Massey, Chris Rustage, Richard Shout, Sandy Sims, Arnaud Stephenso
