For the second year running, a lighting rig comprised exclusively of ADJ fixtures was used to illuminate the 2022 MISS EARTH Slovenia pageant. Following an online only event the previous year, due to the global pandemic, the 2022 contest took place in front of a live audience of over 500 people. 72 ADJ lighting fixtures – including the new Focus Profile and Focus Flex moving head luminaires – created a dazzling lightshow while also perfectly lighting the contestants for the judges. The event’s production also incorporated an ADJ LED video wall, ADJ haze machines and the lighting was all controlled using ADJ’s myDMX 3.0 software.
Founded in 2001, the MISS EARTH Pageant is an international contest with the purpose of utilizing the beauty pageant entertainment industry as an effective tool for the promotion of environmental awareness. With its strapline of ‘beauties for a cause’, the pageant is a search for the most beautiful women of the earth to serve as role models dedicated to advocacy for preserving and restoring the planet. Culminating in a worldwide final in Manilla, the Philippines, featuring delegates from 90 different countries, the contest began with regional competitions in participating countries. Lea Prstec was crowned MISS EARTH Slovenia and went on to place in the Top 20 at the world finals. The process of selecting Lea ran throughout the year, with various challenges and judging rounds. This culminated with a live final featuring twelve participants, which also featured musical performances, and ended with the coronation ceremony for this year’s winners. Alongside Lea, the runners up or ‘companions’ were Neja Prosenjak ‘Miss Earth-Air Slovenia 2022’, Špela Sever ‘Miss Earth-Water Slovenia 2022’ and Tretja Spremljevalka ‘Miss Earth-Fire Slovenia 2022’.
Lighting, video, and audio production for the live final, which took place at a newly opened event center located in the countryside to the south of Slovenia, was taken care of by Vertigo Productions. The company’s principal, Tomy Vertigo, designed a lighting system which ensured the contestants were lit evenly and flatteringly for both the live audience and video cameras used to capture the event. His design also provided a dynamic backdrop of color washes, aerial effects, and video elements to give a vibrant aesthetic to the entire production.
At the back of the stage, under the video screen constructed from 24 of ADJ’s AV4IP LED panels, Tomy positioned four Vizi CMY300 hybrid moving head fixtures, while to the sides he utilized a pair of Vizi BSW 300 luminaires. These fixtures were used to shoot beams up from behind the contestants and performers, as well as to project GOBO patterns on the roof and walls of the venue. Six of the compact Vizi Beam RXONE dedicated beam fixtures were then positioned at the front of the stage, three on each side, while eight more – four on each side – were rigged to the upstage truss. This truss was also home to a pair of Vizi Hybrid 16RX fixtures, additional Vizi BSW 300s, and two of ADJ’s new Focus Profile LED-powered luminaires, which together created vibrant arrays of aerial effects.
“The Focus Profile is a premium quality fixture that is really well made,” enthuses Tomy. ”I have used lighting from all the biggest name manufacturers in the industry and this ranks up amongst them. The output is phenomenal, more than enough for the biggest stages we work on. And it has everything packed into one fixture – CMY, framing, zoom, effects – which makes it very versatile. I can use it for beam effects on a show like this but also in a theater setting, where we work on a lot of opera productions and framing shutters are essential. I plan to invest in many more units of this fixture, it really is the best light I have ever worked with.”
The stage for the event was setup with a thrust catwalk which allowed the contestants to walk in between the two judge’s tables. Tomy surrounded this with eight of ADJ’s Focus Flex compact LED wash-beam moving heads, which are recent new additions to his company’s rental inventory. These were used, zoomed in, to create beam effects running down the catwalks as well as zoomed out to serve as footlights to illuminate the finalists.
“While the best light from ADJ is the Focus Profile, it is too big and heavy for many of the smaller events that we do, but the Focus Flex is perfect,” says Tomy. “When I first heard about these fixtures, I didn’t want to order them, as they looked very similar to a product from a big-name manufacturer that I had worked with previously and proved disappointing. However, Joseph [Chardon, ADJ International Sales] convinced me to try the Focus Flex and I’m glad he did as it has become the ADJ fixture I like the most. It is small, versatile, fast – everything I need for event lighting. I can use it to light performers, either as a spot or a wash, and I also have the possibility of controlling the individual pixels to create visual effects. The colors are incredible, and I get a lot of complements from photographers about the quality of my lighting – as the CRI is very good – which is important for the type of events we work on.”
Alongside the moving heads, Tomy also made use of a number of ADJ’s LED-powered static wash fixtures. Eight 32 HEX Panel IP units were mounted around the central video screen, to serve as audience blinders and ‘eye candy’ effects, while the stage was backwashed by eight 18P HEX LED pars. The contestants and performers on stage were illuminated by fixtures mounted on a truss goalpost located towards the back of the room. This contained COB Cannon Wash wide angle wash fixtures loaded with RGBA color-mixing COB (Chip On Board) LEDs as well as a pair of Encore FR150Z warm while LED Fresnel fixtures.
“When we work on theater productions,” comments Tomy, “they often make specific demands that we use halogen lights, however I can use the FR150Z and they won’t know the difference! Its output is fantastic, and the high CRI ensures that people on stage are lit perfectly. The brightness is very impressive, but also the unit itself is very compact and, of course, it needs much less power than a conventional halogen Fresnel. The zoom range means that it can be used as a short throw or long-range front light, and the output is enough to light a stage from a significant distance. This fixture never disappoints me.”
To accentuate the beams created by the moving head fixtures, Tomy deployed a pair of ADJ’s Entour Haze Pro professional grade haze machines, which use an oil-based fluid to create a very fine mist that enhances aerial effects while still allowing cameras to capture sharp images of people on stage. Finally, he extended the production of the event all the way around the room by up lighting the side walls using ADJ’s new Mirage Q6 IP wireless wash fixtures. Supplied in sets of six, as the Mirage Q6 Pak, delivered in a robust flight case with inbuilt charger, these fixtures are the ultimate up lights. They offer extended range wireless DMX control, high-capacity Lithium-Ion batteries which allow for up to 40 hours of operation (single color) from a single charge, impressive output from four 10-Watt RGBA color mixing LEDs, and a variety of useful features, including an in-built anti-theft alarm.
“For a long time, I postponed buying battery-powered fixtures because I had some a long time ago and was really not satisfied with them, the battery life was poor, and the output was not good,” explains Tomy. “But when the Mirage Q6 Pak was released, I was the first to place my order because Joseph told me they would be good, and I have a lot of trust in him. I bought two sets and have been very pleased, they do their job extremely well. I was pleasantly surprised by the output power, the consistency of the output, the vibrance of the colors and the battery life. I have been really impressed by the Mirage Q6s, they have the output of a professional fixture but with the convenience of wireless power and control.”
Combining piercing aerial effects from an extensive collection of moving heads with vibrant color washes and eye candy looks from static LED washes on stage as well as around the venue, Tomy’s lighting design for Miss Earth Slovenia 2022 created wow factor both in the room and on camera. Meanwhile, the high CRI stage wash ensured the performers and, most importantly, constants were clearly illuminated. The event was a huge success and provided a perfect showcase both for Tomy and his company as well as for ADJ lighting, video, and atmospheric equipment. Having previously used fixtures from a variety of other leading brands, Tomy converted to ADJ a number of years ago and now has an extensive inventory of the company’s fixtures.
“When I started using ADJ fixtures,” says Tomy, “I had a lot of negative comments from my colleagues in the industry, they told me ADJ lights were only good for small parties. But now we are using ADJ equipment to really raise the standards of production in Slovenia and people are looking differently at my use of ADJ fixtures. The perception of the brand is really changing, and many others are now realizing what I already knew: the quality of ADJ fixtures is very good, they perform very well, and they also offer great value for money. The company also offers very good customer service, and I would like to thank Joseph and the rest of the ADJ Europe team for going to great lengths to take care of me and my business. I’m really looking forward to what the future holds in 2023 and beyond, now that all the pandemic restrictions have been lifted, we have some very exciting projects coming up at which we will utilize our growing inventory of ADJ fixtures.”
Event: Miss Earth Slovenia Live Final
Venue: Lavie Center
Production Company: Vertigo
Lighting Designer: Tomy Vertigo
Lighting Programmer: Joseph Chardon [ADJ Europe]
Gear List
2 Focus Profile
8 Focus Flex
14 Vizi Beam RXONE
8 Vizi BSW300
4 Vizi CMY300
2 Vizi Hybrid 16RX
8 32 Hex Panel IP
8 18P HEX
4 COB Cannon Wash
2 Encore FR150Z
12 Mirage Q6 IP
24 AV4IP
2 Entour Haze Pro
myDMX 3.0
2 LINK
Further information from ADJ: www.adj.com
