The Invictus Games is the brainchild of Prince Harry, and took place from 10-14 September. More than 400 competitors from 13 countries participated in the multi-sport event. All of those taking part had fought alongside the UK in recent military campaigns, and had been wounded.
Two Tiger Touch II desks - known for combining maximum power with compact size - were supplied to the Games by Stage Electrics in Bristol. One was stationed in the Copper Box Arena (wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball) and the other in a large temporary multi sport venue within the Here East building (archery, indoor rowing, powerlifting). All venues were covered and broadcast by the BBC.
"The overall requirement was to provide full or complementary field of play lighting for three days of competitions in each of the two venues," says Mawdsley. "I also needed to provide colour, texture, and movement lighting during non competition time. This involved each venue having a moving light rig capable of providing field of play coverage and effect lighting.
"I specified a Tiger Touch II desk in each venue because it's a fantastic hands-on live event desk. It's one of those consoles that is simple to operate but does everything that an event of this nature requires."
With 20 submasters separately paged as two banks of 10 and a further 10 macro or executer buttons, the Tiger Touch II enables instant control, harnessing the power of Avolites' Titan operating system.
Mawdsley chose moving lights due to the fact that access to the fixtures was not possible once the competition flooring and furniture is in place. Each Invictus venue rig was mostly made up of moving wash fixtures for the all important sport lighting plus Martin MAC Viper profiles for custom gobo projection and effects. Both venues also required a large amount of generic audience lighting provided by various 1000w tungsten single and four cell floods.
Mawdsley also specified Avolites ART 2000 24 and 48 way dimmers for the Games, again supplied by Stage Electrics' production manager Mike Jarvis.
"You can't go wrong with an Avolites dimmer," says Mawdsley. "Again, a solid robust industry standard dimmer selection."
(Jim Evans)