The Passion is a musical play that tells the paasverhaal (Easter tale) in a new way, even revolutionary some say. This year, the third Passion was held in the major northern city of the Netherlands, Groningen. The big stage was at the Vismarkt, a square in the heart of town. Dutch actors play Jesus and his twelve disciples and the other important roles in the story.
Thousands of people attended the event, while a 6m long white, neon cross was carried from the soccer stadium of FC Groningen all the way to the square.
PRG EML Productions in Utrecht handled the lighting for the project under direction of production manager Kelvin Mak. He explains, "We used W-DMX to create a link between the stage and a church tower (Martini Tower) which was approximately 700m away. Our network distribution is based on Artnet distributed over copper and fibre with ELC nodes and switches. To create a DMX link with the Martini Tower which is a historical eye-catcher we used two W-DMX dual band transceivers in 5.8gHz band with 25-degree 10dBi directional outdoor antennas."
Lighting designer Bas van der Poel of Light Image used a grandMA2 Platform and ELC Network to control Ireos 7K Spacecannons, VL3500 Wash, VL3000 Spots, Clay Paky Sharpys and GLP Impression 120RZ fixtures.
Mak added, "Wireless Solution was great to work with. They provided great support on short notice to arrange and supply all necessary hardware and firmware. The solution was perfect and the show looked phenomenal."
(Jim Evans)
