LONDON — Two Avolites Diamond 4 consoles were specified for the 2007 BBC Electric Proms shows staged at London’s historic Roundhouse venue. Bryan Leitch and Nick Whitehouse of Visual Light Design Production designed lighting for the acclaimed event, and Siyan supplied equipment.
Headliners for this second year included the Kaiser Chiefs, Paul McCartney, Bloc Party, Ray Davies Mark Ronson and more.
Whitehouse & Leitch chose the two Diamond 4 Visions as the most flexible control option on the table. They were commissioned to incorporate both stage/live and TV/audience lighting into their very dynamic design. The shows were run by Siyan’s team of programmer/operators — Ewan McRobb, Dom Smith and Stu Farrell — working in consultation with the headlining band’s own LDs.
“We use Avolites for all our major shows” affirms Whitehouse, who is also using a D4 on Justin Timberlake’s Future Sex/Love world tour currently in Australia.
The brief for the eye-catching Electric Proms lighting rig was that it should be a highly flexible design that combined and offered two very different aesthetic requirements — those involved in lighting a TV show and also a live performance. This feat was managed by Leitch/Whitehouse with flourish and style for the event. They also integrated the production lighting with the building’s stunning original architecture, retaining its natural charisma and ensuring that The Roundhouse (formally a Victorian era locomotive turning shed) was instantly recognisable on camera.
They flew two semi-circular trusses — one measuring 20 meters and one of 30 meters — at heights of 8 and 12 meter around the back of the stage area. To these were attached 12 random height ‘drop’ trusses made from 30 cm trussing — six per curved truss.
These two trusses contained 20 SGM Giotto Spot 400 CMYs and 17 Giotto Wash 400s, and were tastily toned with 26 i-Pix Satellite LED ‘bricks’. Twenty 4-lite Moles were rigged to the bottom of the drop trusses along with 12 2-lite Moles and 12 Vari*Lite 3000 Spots.
In the archways, part of the house superstructure at the rear of stage were five meter trusses on motors (for positional variations), each with five of the new V*L6C+ spot units attached.
Further back, rigged onto the house balcony rail and above were another nine V*L 3000 Spots and nine 2-lite Moles. Higher still, rigged off the house catwalks at 14 meters high, were 11 Martin Professional MAC 2K Washes and hung either side of those same catwalks were four Novalight High Grounds, used for large, dramatic cross stage beam effects.
For key lighting, they used 10 V*L 1000s on the front truss, and 30 ETC Source Fours hung from assorted upstage pipes.A tight white gauze was stretched around the stage behind the arches for projection (supplied by XL Video). The idea was that the orchestra sitting behind this were concealed when not playing, and revealed by the projections and subtle lighting when in action.
For audience lighting, Leitch & Whitehouse specified 12 MAC 2Ks on the balcony rails of the high house catwalks, plus 17 Giotto Spot 400 CMYs and 6 SGM PALCO LED Wash lights rigged under the balcony rail. They also used the 12 house MAC 2K Spots plus assorted house generic lights.
All this was controlled from the two D4 Visions running via ArtNet. Everything over the stage was controlled by one console, while the house and key lights were run off the other one. Siyan also supplied six Avolites ART 2000 dimmers for the project and four follow spots. Siyan’s crew chief was Iestyn Thomas.
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