Project manager for PRG Europe John McEvoy explained: "There were five areas to light: the main auditorium - the Mirai Theatre - where a live show took place each day; the Mirai Gallery; a daylight room; a smoking room with bars and DJ; and the outside area, also with bars which needed to be lit. In the evening, with the help of lighting from PRG, the Mirai Theatre was transformed into a magnificent dining hall for a four-course dinner, followed by a performance by Heather Small of M People."
PRG Europe supplied a package for the whole event - lighting, crew and mains distribution. In the Mirai Theatre during the day, delegates were given a presentation by executives simultaneously translated into 16 languages. Four dramatic reveal sequences were followed by skilfully choreographed routines featuring car driving, dancers, music, lighting and special effects.
"There was a central circular stage accessed by three ramps, above which was the lighting rig and a three-sided screen onto which images were projected," said Imagination's in-house lighting designer Mike Sobotnicki. "Programmer Dave Hallett did a fantastic job, because we were restricted as to how we could light the executives during their presentations. Obviously, we couldn't light them through the projector beams, so we used Wybron's Autopilot to get the Vari-Lite luminaires on the rig to follow them as they moved round the stage. We used white lighting on a speaker's face, with cool blue behind so as not to dazzle the audience."
The main room was lit with 65 Vari-Lite fixtures, including VL1000s, VL2000 spots and washes, and VL3000s, controlled by a Wholehog II, all supplied by PRG Europe. Each of the three reveals had to look quite different, whilst following varying themes. One theme was cold, hard surfaces and steel; one was warm and vibrant; and the third, which involved vehicles driving across the stage, was a mixture of the two.
"The daylight room was essentially an exhibition room, but we didn't want it to look like a museum, so we used the lighting in the evening to highlight the industrial looking roof beams," continued Mike. "We wanted it to look like a trendy Soho club, and used coloured light through the drinks bar to provide most of the ambient lighting. The smoking room used 12 VL2000 washes to create an entire colour changing area. Over a period of about 20 seconds, so it was barely noticeable, we changed between yellow and cyan, Mazda's corporate colours. We lit the windows from the outside using Palco LED washes on the ground." Client feedback testified to the impact of the event as Dan Morris, CEO of Mazda Motors Europe called it 'an absolutely outstanding event'.
Mazda's parent company Ford was so impressed that they asked Imagination and PRG Europe to work together again for the launch of their new models at the Frankfurt motor show in September. Covering each of Ford's brands - Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin - Vari-Lite fixtures were used to highlight aspects of the vehicles, such as the front bumper or the bonnet, when describing them to the press.
"Car designers spend a lot of time seeing how their vehicles look in different lighting conditions, so they are always quite specific about how they want them to be lit at shows," said Mike. "We were keen for PRG Europe to work with us, because they are specialists in the technical aspects of lighting - making everything look just how the client wants it."
(Chris Henry)
