Robe on court in Prague tennis tournament
- Details
The new indoor hardcourt men’s tennis tournament is staged for the first time in Prague’s O2 Arena, with the action broadcast worldwide.
The fixtures were a mix of 108 x BMFL Spots, WashBeams and Wash XFs, plus 80 x Spiider LED wash beams. The BMFLs were the primary light sources for the main show court, which saw two teams - Europe (captained by Björn Borg) and World (captained by John McEnroe) - battle it out for the trophy.
The full lighting production was designed by SMART Productions, providing a team of 28 riggers and lighting technicians on site led by SMART’s Josef ‘Pepa’ Zenisek who was also the event’s overall technical director for the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and the host broadcaster.
It was Pepa who suggested utilising Robe moving lights to illuminate the courts. BMFLs were also used as part of the lighting design for the ceremonies of the 2015 Fed Cup Final also held in Prague.
“We proposed the lighting design and sent visualisations and renders to the organisers to explain how the ideas would look and work efficiently” he explained. It was a process on which Pepa collaborated with Australian based lighting designer Toby Harding from video and production design specialist Offset Dice who was the event’s lighting director.”
Offset Dice is part of Australian based live event production and solutions company Mediatec Asia Pacific who were also involved in delivering the event.
A total of 10 trusses were installed into the O2’s roof and utilised for lighting positions, with the main court lighting units positioned on two 40m and two 16m trusses rigged individually but in a box configuration directly above the court area.
The eighty Spiiders were used for lighting the audience grandstands surrounding the tennis court, distributed along a series of shorter trusses flown slightly lower around the arena.
The lighting equipment was sourced from different rental companies due to the amount of needed explained Pepa, with German based Niclen being the primary supplier. For the PA they utilised the house racks-and-stacks with Mediatec brining in consoles and control, and video was also provided by Mediatec. The 2018 Laver Cup will be staged in Chicago.
(Jim Evans)
