Lighting designer Matthieu Larivée of Luz Lighting Design and assistant LD Valy Tremblay of Proluxon designed a colourful array of effects on the massive structures using almost 600 fixtures to achieve the perfect look to accompany this historical event. The landscape provided the biggest challenge, the shortest distance from console to fixture was approximately 1000m (.6 miles) and the longest more than 1800m (1.1 miles), consisting of rough desert hills and rocky terrain. The only logical solution for DMX control of the massive equipment list was W-DMX by Wireless Solution.
Five W-DMX S-1 transmitters and 10 R-512 receivers handled DMX control of 110 Griven Kolorado 2.4, 60 Zap technologies Biglite 4.5k, 70 Vari-Lite VL3000 spots, 15 Vari-Lite VL3500 spots, 10 Vari-Lite VL3000 wash, 20 Vari-Lite VL500, 80 Martin Mac2000 wash, 110 Color Kinetics CB 12, 4 Robert Juliat Ivanhoe, four Robert Juliat Cyrano, 24 Thomas 2-lite PAR 36 blinders, 24 ETC PARs, 15 Strand Nocturne 1k, four MDG atmosphere hazers, and eight MDG 5000 fog generators, all controlled by four GrandMA full size consoles. Lighting equipment was supplied by Procon of Belgium.
Tremblay managed all W-DMX specifications and supervised the on-site deployment, in addition to assisting Larivée throughout the production. He also managed all of the DMX data, patch information, and the MA network, as well as GrandMA programming throughout the show with the main operator Hubert Gagnon. Tremblay's Montreal studio, Proluxon, also provided all of the advanced and on-site WYSIWYG services.
Tremblay was thrilled with W-DMX, citing a number of reasons it was so valuable during the project. "I've worked with W-DMX in the past on elaborate shows such as Cirque du Soleil's Delirium and knew it was reliable," he says, "Not only is it impossible to run cable when dealing with set ups of this magnitude, but we were under extremely tight time constraints. We only had eight days from the time the equipment arrived until the actual concert to get almost 600 fixtures up and running - and they were scattered over the span of an entire square mile of highly protected land. Even if we had that much cable, it would have taken weeks and made an unsightly mess. "
(Jim Evans)
