The 230W Legends were the only fixtures used on the ocean liner for the magnificent lighting display. (Four other movers were on shore as part of the show.) Positioned alongside the railings of the port side promenade deck, the fixtures cast rapidly moving and vividly coloured beams across New York harbour and into the sky during the 8-minute show, which began at 9:30 in the evening as the ship held position in front of the Statue of Liberty.
"It was an impressive sight," said Easterling. "Our goal was to celebrate the rich history of Cunard and point ahead to its exciting future with a show that was as breathtaking and majestic as the famous ships that sailed under the Cunard banner. We produced the show for two perspectives: the passengers aboard the ship and the people gathered in Battery Park in lower Manhattan. We saw it as a ballet of light choreographed to a sweeping musical score. The show received an incredible response."
Kelly and his lighting designer Richard Chamblin counted on the intense output (96,000 lux at 15m) of the 50 Legend 230SR fixtures to create an impactful display for their light-and-music ballet in a 'theatre' that was really one of the world's largest harbours.
"One of the biggest challenges in this project was the distance of the ship relative to Battery Park where the crowd gathered," said Chamblin. "When this project was being developed we knew the ship would be anywhere from a quarter to a half mile off shore. With that kind of distance we wanted to make sure that the lights would be bright enough to stand out. The biggest deciding factor for us in choosing this fixture was its brightness. The Legend 230SR easily out performs its competitors in lumen output."
The LDs also singled out the Legend 230SR Beam's eight-facet prism for creating vivid, colourful looks on the harbour's nearly black night water. "We relied heavily on the Legend's prisms during the show," said Chamblin. "At the distance we were using the lights, gobos and zooming features aren't what's called for - but the prisms in these fixtures created some really nice looks when we used the water as a palette to illuminate."
Overcoming the distance between the ship and the onshore audience was only one of the challenges that Quantum Theatricals faced when pulling off this historic project, which Easterling and his team began working on in March. "When we presented the idea of creating this show, the Cunard executives were very intrigued," said Easterling. "However everyone was wondering if it could be done. There was a tremendous amount of conversation and research undertaken to ensure that we would have the necessary time and money."
Among the biggest challenges faced by the design team was to ensure that the lightshow, which was timed using SMPTE time code on the ship, and the music sound tracks at Battery Park would be triggered at exactly the same moments. "We couldn't run a cable from the park to the ship - and streaming SMPTE was not reliable enough," said Easterling. "So we commissioned a custom GPS triggering system that utilized GPS time clocks to trigger the start of the show both on land and on the ship at the exact same moment in time. The clock sent a trigger to the control consoles on the ship and in the park at precisely the same
