LONDON — LD Mark Kenyon wanted some new effects for the final installment of the BBC’s latest Strictly Come Dancing series, and thought it fitting to try Robe DigitalSpot 7000DTs. They made the cut, and Kenyon went on to use the new gear for the Christmas Special edition as well, shown here. Kenyon first saw the units in action at one of Robe’s “The Future is Digital” Roadshow events in London, which he attended along with moving light operator and Catalyst (digital media server) programmer Roger Williams at the behest of Lee House from AC Video, a division of AC Entertainment Technologies.
For the final Strictly Come Dancing show, he was impressed by the new look the instruments created on the dance floor, filling it with subtle and effective texturing, movement and color.
After the Christmas Special, Kenyon opted for six DigitalSpot 7000DTs to illuminate and add extra treatments to the dance floor of Studio TC1 at the BBC’s Wood Lane HQ in West London.
The DT7000s were rigged 12 meters up in the roof of the studio and run via ArtNet protocol back to a CompuLite Vector console in the control room, operated by Roger Williams (for the Final) and Dave Bishop (for the Christmas Special). They each used DigitalSpot’s Picture Merge facility and edge-blended all six units together to produce a nine-meter-by-20-meter image on the dance floor.
Robe UK’s Nathan Wan teched the shows. Approximately 60Gb of video clips plus the Strictly Come Dancing logo were uploaded to the media servers in the unit’s heads.
Kenyon wanted the DT7000 effects to be interesting but understated for the show, which was already animated with lighting and LED effects.
“I’m really happy with the DigitalSpots, and hope to use them again in the near future with more time to create bespoke content,” Kenyon said, referring to custom looks. “It was an excellent effect being able to make the logo appear and disappear on the dance floor, and the fixtures were quick and simple to set up. They updated with the new content, synched and worked flawlessly throughout both shows.”
He called the LED modules on the DigitalSpots, which let him cover the whole dance floor area with the six fixtures, “fantastic.”
Strictly Come Dancing 2008 was directed by Nikki Parsons and executive produced by Sam Donnelly and Martin Scott, with Helen Bishop managing the production. Kenyon has lit the show for all six of its series over the last five years.
The 2008 final match-up was won by Holby City star Tom Chambers and his partner Camilla Dallerup. They edged out Rachel Stevens and Vincent Simone and Lisa Snowdon and Brendon Cole.
Former Strictly contestants Jill Halfpenny, Kelly Brook and Alesha Dixon joined the 2008 finalists for the dance-off broadcast on Christmas Day.
For more information, please visit www.robe.cz.
