They went on to commission London Light to provide design, equipment, crew and transport for the production lighting for three outdoor events over the summer period, with the first taking place at Dunsfold, Surrey, in June. The event, called Strings and Wings, started on a Friday evening with a Queen tribute act, re-enacting some of the finest music of the 1970s. Then, on the following day, the history of the aerodrome was celebrated with a classic concert in honour of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
James Hodgeson, managing director at Rel-Event, says, "Although we've worked with London Light's technical director Sam Crook in the past, it was good to find that his name kept coming up when we were asking around.
"For the Queen evening, we asked for a 1970s style design, and, for the Battle of Britain evening, we asked for lots of red, white and blue. One of the challenges for them was that most of the evening is in daylight, so they used Chroma-Q Color Web on the back wall to provide effects for the crowd, while the rest of the lighting was used to pick out the performers or catch the audience's eye. Even in bright daylight, the front lighting was great. I was really pleased with the way they fulfilled the brief, providing dynamic lighting from the audience's point of view without disturbing the musicians on stage.
"Sam and his team were personable and flexible, with an impressive attention to detail. When we needed extra power in the audience stands, that was no problem for them, and they worked incredibly hard to make sure everything went smoothly for us. We had some great feedback from performers and members of the public."
The moving light rig included Vari-Lite VL3000 Spots, Martin MAC 500s and 600s as well as Studio Due CS4s along with a number of PAR 64s and ETC Source Fours. London Light supplied an ETC Eos with a 2x20 fader wing and backup for lighting control, with a Green Hippo Hippo Critter serving content for the Chroma Q Color Web 250. All DMX was distributed over an Artistic Licence Art-Net network.
Sam Crook adds, "The rig worked really well in both the light and darker times of the evenings. Having the Color Web backdrop really helped give depth to the stage and meant we could display images such as a Union Jack, which was in keeping with the very patriotic tone of the event."
(Jim Evans)
