The D4 is always his desk of choice he explains. He has used Avolites' most powerful console extensively since a D4 was installed at Shepherds' Bush Empire 16 months ago, where he's one of the house programmer/designers. "It was ideal for a show like the Planets, with very limited programming and rehearsal time, multiple artists and a lot of lighting to control 'on the fly'."
This was the fifth Planet Awards (originally called the BBC 3 Awards World Music Poll Winners Concert) a show that's quickly become established as a premier event for world music.
This year's show gathered musicians from all corners of the planet and included live performances by Nitin Sawney, Sain Zahoor, Souad Massi, Amadou and Mariam, Fanfare Ciocarlia and Konono No 1. It was presented by High Masekela and Late Junction's Verity Sharp and Fiona Talkington, and was broadcast on Radio 3, with TV highlights shown twice on BBC 4. The entire concert is also available for download from the BBC's website, as is a special behind-the-scenes documentary about staging it.
Luton was brought onboard by production company Serious Productions to take care of all the show's and artist's lighting requirements, for which he worked closely with the BBC's designer, Oli Richards. With a stage and a presentation area on stage right to be lit, they came up with the idea of using Pulsar LED Chroma strips to create a continuity in look between the two elements. Forty-eight of these were used in total, 12 in the presentation area and the rest for the performance area of the stage. The latter were bolted behind three upstage screens so they shone through the scrim material and disappeared when the projections were running.
The three screens at the back of the stage were stretched across trussing frames, each of which also had six Martin MAC 250 moving lights rigged onto them.
Other moving lights included 12 High End X-Spots, located on the back rail of a box truss and on drop bars descending from the side trusses of the box, used for cross stage fillers, plus another four on the floor. The screen truss was hung upstage of the back rail of the box and flown in and out so artists and their kit could be easily moved on and offstage.
On the front edge of the box truss were four MAC 700s, used exclusively for screen projections, with Luton taking full advantage of their animation wheel facilities. Also on the front edge of the box were three HES Studio Beam PCs. TA further 8 PC Beams were on a 'TV truss' flown in the auditorium, primarily used for audience lighting. The same truss also contained 14 Source Fours on it's upstage rail, used for key lighting performers onstage.
Other lighting instruments - supplied by Neg Earth - included a few PARs dotted around, and some Lowell Omni floodlights along the font of stage, ideal for lifting the faces of performers wearing elaborate headgear that shielded their faces from the overhead illumination causing shadows.
All lighting was controlled by the D4. Originally, Luton was planning to run a digital media server with video off the console as well, but this was replaced with the animated projections.
Luton loves the versatility of the Diamond 4 and the fact that you can configure and customise the front panel to have your fixtures, effects and functions exactly where you want them for easy access. His preference in this case was to organise all the movement chases and special effects along the top of the desk, with the basics including stage colour washes along the bottom.
It was more of a static look show composed from a series of big spectacular looks for each artist rather then a flashy rock 'n' roll affair, although he says: " It had its moments!", and
