The major visual element of The Singing Bee set is a cyclorama-like backing created by eight large S shaped panels. "When we saw that the Australian production had used an RP screen material and LED sources to back light it, we decided that this was the way to go," says McKenzie. "We set up a test with the Martin Stagebar 54 LED luminaires and a sample of the material and were blown away with the result."
A total of 60 Stagebars are used in vertical rows of three to light the cyclorama panels, which allows for waves of colour running across the background, a signature look for the show.
The bulk of the show used a range of colour waves and moves across the background to tie the look of the show together. "For television the Stagebars have plenty of output, and in the saturated colours we found that we had to pull the level back to avoid overloading the cameras," adds Mckenzie. "The amber allowed a great range of colour mixing, and having white available allowed us to mix some good pastel colours as well as the saturated ones.
"The Stagebars are an amazing piece of kit and made the job very easy along with the ability to programme a large number of them easily from the Maxxyz control desk."
(Jim Evans)
