SWG have been involved in the evolution of the Park Stage since its launch three years ago and as a result of their co-operation with MilTec (UK) have been able to keep up to date with the developing catalogue of products from the Chinese lighting manufacturers.
Said SWG operations manager, Mark Bott, "Last year the PR Lighting moving heads were really bright and functional, but the true test for a hire company is how those lights bear up in a live situation. These endured a raft of conditions and we didn't have a single fault, so we were more than happy with them and were pleased to be using them again."
This year the presentation was beefed up for acts which headlined Animal Collective and Bon Iver over the three days. 10 PR Lighting XL1200 wash lights and XL Framing 1200s adorned the stage's front, mid and rear lighting trusses and six lighting bars.
The occasion also provided a first major outing for PR Lighting's newly-launched XLED 590s. Using Osram's Diamond Dragon LED, each head contains 90 high power 5W RGB LED's with an average lamp life of 100,000 hours. The light output closely resembles that of a conventional wash light containing a 1200W discharge lamp.
Also featuring as graphic effects were 28 of MilTecs' own MT Lighting LED battens. These 1m long IP65 rated units use 252 lensed LEDs to give a bright, focused beam from four individually controlled sections.
At the same time South West Group redeployed 14 x PR Lighting XL250s (used last year along with Pilot 150's on the main stage) and two PR Lighting XL700 on the BBC Introducing stage. 16 MT Lighting battens were used as audience blinders.
SWG's lighting designer, Tim Smith said: "This was the first time I had worked with PR Lighting fixtures. They had been recommended by MilTec and I must say I was hugely impressed."
He added that they had not only worked closely with PR Lighting's UK distributors but also local company, James Ashdown's Automated, who supplied the XL1200 wash lights and XL250's.
But rigging the effects within the fabric of the Serious Stages 16m Supernova orbit stage had proved challenging. "We had to provide a lot of rigging to support a 4-tonne load because we were unable to fly the effects." All the lighting on The Park main stage was triggered from an Avo Diamond 4 lighting desk, while a Pearl Expert controlled the XL250 effects on the BBC Introducing stage, where South West Group's Lewis Beal handled the lighting programming.
One week earlier Beal had been on duty at GoldCoast Oceanfest 2009 - a three day Surf and Music festival held at Croyde Bay in Devon. Here, the lighting dynamics were built around 12 x XL250 automated heads, complemented by four of the XLED 590's.
(Jim Evans)
