The Live Action Arena - the largest indoor tri oval racetrack in the UK - took up the entire hall, with a performance area of approximately 120m wide by 100 deep, and was the focus of the exhibition for the most serious petrol heads, speed freaks and performance car enthusiasts. They were treated to a series of races and stunts by some of the fastest vehicles on four - and three - wheels for 55 minutes of burning rubber, screeching brakes and adrenalized excitement. The five show-a-day schedule on the two public days attracted up to 4700 people per session packing the grandstand to capacity!
It was the third year that Wan has lit the show - working for sound and lighting contractors Network Audio. Each time, Robe fixtures have been an integral element of his design, the main criteria of which is the smart utilization of enough bright light sources in a dark and lumen hungry environment, renowned for absorbing however much light is thrown at it!
This year 30 ColorSpot 1200E ATs and 12 ColorSpot 2500E ATs were the main workhorses of the show, joined by 18 of Robe's ColorBeam 2500s located along the short walls of the track perimeter for hi-impact low level aerial effects.
The ColorSpot 2500s were all on the overhead trussing, consisting of a 56m octagon in the centre, with 3 x 30m 'finger' trusses shooting off from either side, plus 416 metres of A type trussing making up a series of long straight front and back trusses traversing the full width of the space. The ColorSpot 1200s were on the 'finger' trusses.
On the front truss were six ColorSpot 700s for key lighting the presenters, Fifth Gear's Jason Plato & Tiff Needell, and their guests.
This year, the Live Action Arena had a Tron-style look and theme, with two large central LED screens and several pillars of medium res LED surface dotted around - all supplied by XL Video.
In addition to the Robes, Wan used over 100 PixelLine LED battens hung vertically on drop bars at the end of the finger trusses, some LED moving lights, 300 odd Pars and strategically placed 4-lite blinders.
The whole system was run over ArtNet, with all lighting programmed and run by Wan on a Jands Vista T2 console using the new Byron software.
(Jim Evans)
