It’s been said that until people sprout wings and fly, there will never be anything quite as thrilling as freestyle jumping. Anyone who attended the Big Air Show at the Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. knows that feeling well. This year, instead of simply flying through the air the skiers and snowboarders who competed in the popular three-day event were able to work their magic in a field of light, thanks to a fast moving and colorful lighting design created with CHAUVET Professional fixtures supplied by Production Service Industries (PSI).
Lighting Designer Andrew Dawson and Production Manager/Co-Designer Matt Chambers lined each side of the 200′ landing with five towers, separated by about 50-feet. Each tower had three Color STRIKE M motorized wash-strobes and a single Rogue Outcast 2X Wash on top. Drawing on the intense output and color rendering prowess of these fixtures, the designers created a series of distinct and colorful looks for the 20-to-30 skier and snowboarder jumpers who participated every night. “We broke our color combinations down into a few segments,” said Dawson. “This year’s show featured a ‘competition moment’ between the skiers and snowboarders. Each team had its own color: red for skiers, and blue for snowboarders. We wanted to tie in those rich, saturated colors throughout the design. Then, during the “freestyle” jump moments, we had built combinations of complementary colors to change up the looks and vibe of the show. We achieved a lot of this with pixel effects from the Color STRIKE Ms.”
The energy from the lighting design was felt not only during those jump moments but throughout the evening. “Each night the event ended with a train of all jumpers, this was a spectacle in itself,” said Chambers. There was also an intense intro moment every night, featuring EDM music and a vividly colored lightshow.” “We busked and cue stacked the intro, using a lot of saturated reds and blues, which the Chauvet fixtures did perfectly,” said Dawson. “I was thrilled with how well the Color STRIKE M acted as my ‘Swiss army knife.’ I used the fixture in max channel mode utilizing it as a wash, for eye candy effects, in addition to using it as a strobe.”
Dawson and Chambers needed to conjure up a range of effects to keep pace with all the activities at the event, which combined theatrical elements, comedy skits, and stunts by skiers and snowboarders, to engage the big crowd on multiple levels. Achieving these spectacular results was not without its challenges. This was evident at the start of the design process. “We all like to model things– be it in Vectorworks, Capture, or WYSIWYG,” said Chambers. “One of the biggest challenges in this case was not being able to model a ski hill and man-made landing accurately.”
Once onsite, the production team had the challenge of getting the fixtures and truss up the hill. “Dimmer tech, Antony Kahil, who designed this year’s truss tower system, made it easier to securely, and safely get the fixtures on the hill,” said Chambers. “This was really a team effort. Tom Bowen-Smith our dimmer tech, and Andrew D, the whiz behind the console, also deserve a lot of credit.” Not only did the hard-working team come through at this event, so too did the rig’s rugged equipment. “The IP Chauvet Professional fixtures held up and performed incredibly well,” said Chambers. “We did not have to swap a single one during the entire show.” So, while the freestyle jumps were exciting and the lighting effects were breathtaking, the actual task of keeping the rig running smoothing in a Canadian winter were mercifully uneventful.
Further information from CHAUVET Professional: www.chauvetprofessional.com
