Lighting & Video
Sponsored by Bloomsbury Publishing, and taking place at London's Royal Albert Hall, the event is driven by Clear Channel, as LD Mark Cunniffe explained. "Graham Pullen as executive producer and Katherine Allen from Initial were pivotal to making it work, while Phil Christianson in the production manager's seat did a fantastic job. There were a lot of challenges with what they wanted to do - using smoke for projection screens, for example. We had to do a great deal of groundwork to make it a visual spectacular, and also ensure that it worked simultaneously for TV. Because of the element of cameras - for a live webcast - the lighting had to be integrated into the effects. I just ordered the brightest Barco projectors available from Creative Technology and had them put into Box 19,"- this being the optimum position for the intended projection onto the globe. "However, until we got into the Royal Albert Hall no-one really knew how well it would work. We've got cameras wide open at F2.8, but we've still got to make it look good for the kids."
CT fielded six Christie X10 Roadies and four Barco ELM G10 three-chip DLP projectors for this all-digital show. To create the special effects, the Barco chassis were fitted with Catalyst mirror heads for orbital movement, while the Catalyst software was run off a Doremi processor. "This enabled scenic effects such as a ghost and clouds to be projected into the environment," explained Jon Hodgson, who supervised the event for CT. The Roadie X10s were deployed elsewhere - four projecting from the second tier boxes onto a 9m suspended globe, the remaining two used for rear projection onstage. All the Christies took SDI feeds from the CTV OB truck stationed outside the Hall.
Certain elements of the venue helped solve the challenging aspects referred to by Cunniffe, providing unexpected solutions: "The RAH looks fabulous and supported Graham Dixon and Glyn Larcomb's excellent set perfectly, providing just the right background. For me, in terms of lighting, this meant I didn't have to use such heavily saturated colours - which could easily over-chrome on the TV - to get the richness of look that was called for." And the projectors versus lighting? "Proved fantastic. We had a one day fit-up, one day of rehearsals, then the show: I knew on the first night when we fired up the Barcos that we wouldn't have a problem." Which is all the more remarkable when you see Cunniffe's lighting spec: "I had LSD supply everything, with Scotty Duig as my gaffer. They were brilliant; Scotty and his crew really pulled out all the stops - I only had to look at him and he knew what I needed."
The rig included Martin MAC 2000 Washes, Performances and Profiles ("the new washlight is very impressive," said Cunniffe), Studio Colors and PC Beams from High End were also in abundance, as were LSD Icons, of which Cunniffe commented: "They might be getting a bit long in the tooth now, but they have lovely saturates and an intensity that's still to be matched for a lamp of its class."
Rigging
This is a complex show to rig, not least because of the blue Ford Anglia which flys above the audience. Star Rigging's Phil Broad has rigged many shows in the RAH. "GLD's set included a giant 9m diameter inflatable screen which we rigged above centre house so that all of the audience could see the proceedings. The screen meant that we had to fly the PA system further
