Lighting equipment was supplied by Southampton-based GLS who were working for event producers Watermark Event Management. GLS brought Peter Canning and Nic Ayres of Anglo-Irish design practice High Resolution Lighting onboard to produce the creative elements needed to make the presentation fly. "They were an obvious choice as Virgin Atlantic like a rock and roll edge to their shows," says GLS's Ian Turner.
Challenges included the back wall of the venue being an 80m (262ft) wide by 20m (66ft) high glass wall, which effectively meant that the show - which took place on a 12m (39ft) deep stage built in front of this - was in daylight. No available flying points dictated that they had to use a six-leg ground supported box truss for most of the lighting rig and video elements - the latter of which were also supplied by GLS.
Canning specified 24 of Robe's ColorWash and ColorSpot 2500E AT fixtures - 12 of each type - because he wanted to create some very distinct washes in the roof and also project the Virgin Atlantic logo around the roof and walls.
Six of the ColorWash 2500E ATs were positioned on the floor to get good roof projection positions. It was the first time Ayres had used the 2500s, and he mentions that he was "very impressed with the tight beams".
Along the back of the box truss were eight Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, with another two on each side run. Behind the stage they hung 12 20m high columns of Element Labs VersaTUBE LED tubes - over 200 in total - which were attached to the roof girders on special brackets, following the contours of the glass, rigged by Craig Trotter.
Onstage key lighting was provided by 18 ETC Source Fours. The lighting picture was completed with six floor cans for additional low level cross beamage and PAR 64 truss toners to illuminate the highly polished metal surfaces.
All lighting fixtures were controlled by the Avolites Diamond 4 Elite console run by Peter Canning. The control set up included a Catalyst digital media server feeding the VersaTUBES with special content created for the show.
(Jim Evans)
