Lighting designer Roger Williams was asked to design the show and with a reasonable budget he wanted to try something new. He explains: "My thought for a backdrop was a soft LED cloth, but as there were none available in Europe; I had to think of something else. Video walls have been seen so many times and to cover an area of over 20 x 15ft - it would have left me little or no money for lights!"
And with the likes of both Heather Small and Jocelyn Brown belting out their hits, the show had to match such massive vocal talent. Williams continues: "So I decided to create a wall of PixelLine 1044s. I wanted it to be fairly low resolution, so I left gaps in-between the units. The design utilised 94 PixelLines in three rows of 30 and a pair at each end. The system ran with PixelMad from a Compulite Vector by Tom Sutherland over Ethernet using 12 universes of DMX. The results were very impressive - in fact the resolution was too high if anything!"In addition to the battens there were also 26 PixelPars and 120 automated lights operated by Andy Dobbs also controlled by Compulite Vector. ELP supplied the backdrop structure and Richard Martin Lighting supplied the PixelLines.
(Lee Baldock)
