Media Resource Group (MRG) delivered, installed and are now supporting the sound, lighting, rigging and communication services to the production. MRG supplied High End Systems gear from Preworks Austria: 54 intellaspot automated luminaires, two Road Hog Full Boar consoles, two Road Hog Playback Wings and four DMX Processor 8000s.
Preworks' general manager Andreas Reinbacher said, "Ben Hur Live has raised the bar of live spectacles so high, it requires creating a new word for its classification in the production industry: monu-tainment. Monumental entertainment."
Live chariot races are just one part of the production - with 100 performers and 100 animals, specially trained horses, and special effects with fire, water and wind. Among the many on the design team are Mark Fisher, who designed the stage, scenery and props, and LD Patrick Woodroffe, who designed the lighting.
Reinbacher said, "The intellaspot was chosen for its intensity, colour mixing system and projection quality; the 850W fixture's output was compared to that for 1500W fixtures."
Lighting designer Andy Kisters comments on the Full Boar console, "The new Wholehog software (v3.2.1) runs absolutely flawlessly and I am satisfied, as I have always been a Wholehog user. The programming process runs much faster now. There are a lot of effects in the show, and it is so easy and fast to create an effect using the Effects Engine."
(Jim Evans)
