Most of HSL's new screen went straight into action at the 2011 Global Gathering dance festival, staged last weekend at long Marston Airfield, near Stratford on Avon. HSL supplied screen surfaces to the main stage and the Wax:On/hospitality arena, together with lighting for the main stage and five tented arenas plus the Terrace, once again working with lighting and video designers, Electric Fly.
HSL's Mike Oates explains that they have invested in the screen to satisfy the increasing demands of lighting designers who often now include scenic and visual design elements like screen surfaces and video into their creations. "I know we've all been talking about 'convergence' for some time," states Oates, "But now the circumstances, the products, the budgets and the workable ideas are really in place for screens to become integrated into any lighting and visuals rig whatever the size. At HSL, we are dedicated to offering clients the very best technology available to achieve their visions and meet their specs."
An impressive international line up at Global Gathering 2011 - celebrating its 10th year - embraced a multiplicity of dance genres, going from main stage headliners Pendulum (Friday) and Tinie Tempah (Saturday) to high-energy performances from Chase & Status, Axwell, Steve Angello, Eric Prydz, Carl Cox, Sasha, Underworld, and many, many more.
The majority of HSL's new EC20 screen - 175 panels of it in fact - was used on the main stage, all of which was designed around Pendulum's Friday night headline slot. The upstage screen consisted of a 12 metre wide and 5 metre drop surface area of EC20, which looked awesome, specially with Pendulum's highly imaginative, stimulating visuals show which is designed and operated by Immersive.
The left and right side wings of the stage each also featured three separate sections of HSL's LC2140, which was attached to the Layher scaffolding system blocks used to scenically frame the stage. Fronted in vinyl material and back lit with individual PAR, the multicolour blocky style wings were an idea conceived by 4AV from Eindhoven, Holland.
For main stage lighting, the HSL 'house' rig comprised of 12 of their new Martin Professional MAC 3Ks (they have purchased 85 in total) on the back truss, and 22 MAC 2K XB Wash fixtures, of which they have also bought 85, positioned over front, mid and side trusses, together with 26 x Atomic strobes and large numbers of 2, 4 and 8-lite blinders which were dotted around. The floor was left completely clean, and a Road Hog Full Boar console was supplied for controlling Pendulum's lightshow, with a Chamsys MQ100 for use as the house desk.
HSL is also supplying Pendulum's ongoing 2011 Festival tour floor package - which was utilised at Global - adding 24 MAC 2K XBs and 48 Atomic strobes with colour changers which were upstage of the video screen. The band brought in their touring stage riser, which is fronted with Barco MiTrix surface (supplied by XL Video), and their three 'tree' scenic lighting stands, rigged with 9 of HSL's Robe ROBIN 600 Wash moving heads.
Overall, for Global Gathering 2011, HSL supplied seven trucks of kit and a total of 240 moving heads, 232 strobes and over 140 blinder units, plus assorted PARs and generics which were deployed throughout the stages and arenas.
(Jim Evans)
