Sonu A.B. explained, "It was challenging to use the same lighting setup in another venue just 15 hours later. The poetry festival started in Hall 4 exclusively for Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Fazza'a), Crown Prince of Dubai, after which the venue was shifted to the Sheikh Rashid Hall for one day, and then back to Hall 4 for the remainder of the festival. We had the same show running in the two different venues.
"We had almost no time for programming, as the very precise key lighting focus was so time consuming, with both Sheikh Hamdan and Sheikh Ahmad bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Azzam), chairman of the Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, reciting that night," Sonu continued, "His Highness Sheikh Mohammad also attended that same poetry evening. On the programming side, the grandMA came in handy as we just had to update the presets and that was done in no time. We used different fixtures in the two venues, so the fixture exchange option also made life quick and easy. More than anything else, it was reliable."
Amongst other lighting fixtures there were 12 Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1200s, 12 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1200s, six Clay Paky Alpha Spot 575s and six Clay Paky Alpha Wash 575s installed in the rig.
The Show was televised on Dubai TV. The lighting equipment was supplied by Events Productions to organisers Done Events.
(Jim Evans)
