Produced by Venkat Vardhan of DNA Entertainment Networks, one of India's leading international event companies, the 30 minute all-action Opening Ceremony show featured a cast of 350 including Japanese drummers, Shaolin Monks, lotus flower dancers, silk performers and local schoolchildren, plus three international stars - Chaka Khan, Jamelia and Shaggy.
Dunn (from Gearhouse South Africa) was asked to design the event's lighting by DNA after delivering an impressive show for the Closing Ceremony of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament in Johannesburg in May, for which he also used a grandMA.
He didn't think twice when it came to specifying a console. He's used a grandMA for all his shows over the last three years and it's his desk of choice. Knowing that he only had two nights to programme a full-on stadium show, the grandMA was an absolute key to getting a result in the timescale, as Dunn can work extremely fast on it.
All lighting equipment (along with sound and lasers) was supplied by Mumbai based Electrocraft, with an on-site team of 28 led by Ronnie Fraser.
The company has two grandMA full sizes and two MA NSPs (Network Signal Processor), and first invested in the MA brand two years ago because they were servicing an increasing number of major international shows. "I believe it's the only desk in the world today that can help realise shows of this scale," comments Fraser, "The MA system solution is fast, reliable and versatile, and running with the MA NSP means that you don't necessarily need a backup console."
He adds that the training from MA has also been excellent, with a team from the MA's Dubai office visiting Mumbai to train all Electrocraft's programmers and operators.
For the T20 Opening, the creative lighting brief demanded something energetic, vibrant and memorable that would work both on TV and for the live audience. Most of the fixtures were hung on 16 truss sections flown just below the second level balconies all around the stadium, rigged off the roof structure.
There were 140 moving lights - a mix of Clay Paky Alpha Washes and 2 and 4K Skytrackers - an expedient number of lights to fill a large cricket stadium. It was vital that the full field of play was involved in the drama and action as well as the stage (facing the VIP stand), with performers positioned across and around the pitch for most of the show.
Approximately 300 Halogen floods in banks of nine were also available, together with 60 PARs for washing and key lighting the stage. Circling the pitch perimeter were 20 CityColor 2.5Ks, used for low-level washes and pitch skimming effects.
Dunn's challenges included seeing just one dress rehearsal of the performance beforehand, and receiving the music track after this on the night before show day, just in time for his final frenetic hours of pre-dawn programming.
On the first night he set up groups and other basic building blocks like pre-set focuses, which gave him a good idea of what effects the lights were capable of achieving. On show day, Dunn downloaded the latest version of grandMA onPC from the MA Lighting website to his laptop at the stadium and ran this as a backup.
The Opening Ceremony was broadcast live by ESPN Star Sports to an audience of several millions worldwide and watched by 55,000 very enthusiastic cricket crazy fans in the stadium.
The Opening Ceremony was immediately followed by the first match in the T20 Champions League series, between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Cape Cobras, which saw the latter defeating the local team by 5 wickets. Reynold's Inc. is the distributor of MA Lighting in India.
(Jim Evans)
