When the city government decided to use the countdown to the year 2012 as an opportunity to promote Chinese culture, and the city of Beijing in particular, it did not spare any effort to make it an event to be remembered. BeiAo Festival International Culture Development Co, the event and production company renowned for its central role in the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, was in charge of all logistical and technical aspects of this gigantic production.
The large size of the site and the stated ambitions of the organisers, to match or surpass similar international events in New York, London, Tokyo, and Sidney, demanded large-scale solutions to both the artistic design and the technical solutions. The requirements were further complicated by the large crowds that attended the event and the fact that the show itself would be nationally televised to hundreds of millions of viewers in a live broadcast.
LumenRadio's Chinese distributor Leafun, with many years of experience selling and operating wireless lighting control systems, became involved in the project at an early stage. Marco Chan, Senior Designer at Leafun, commissioned a wireless CRMX DMX/RDM system that would be key to lighting the monumental Qi Nian or Temple of Heaven itself and the vast area around it. This section of the park was the focal point of a larger than life visual spectacular that included lasers, lights, and 3D projections of proportions seldom seen.
"There are now quite a few brands of wireless DMX systems and I have over time had the opportunity to work with most of them", said BeiAo project manager Liu Zheng Ming, "This project however required performance and reliability beyond what these systems can provide and we jumped on the opportunity when the CRMX system from LumenRadio was presented to us by Leafun as the absolutely most advanced and reliable system available.
"I am very pleased to report that the system fulfilled all promises and delivered ease of use, performance, and reliability beyond what we ever before have experienced. It performed flawlessly in this particularly demanding and critical application and we will definitely make LumenRadio's CRMX technology a requirement for future projects of this magnitude".
"We are extremely happy with the performance of the LumenRadio CRMX system during the New Year's countdown. Full DMX frame integrity, 100% reliability, and the ability to monitor the system in real time with RDM is a necessity for these types of gigantic live productions. We have used CRMX products in many demanding and large scale projects before and we know that we can count of the system to deliver under even extreme conditions like this,", said Marco Chan, senior designer at Leafun.
(Jim Evans)
