Sydney Catholic Schools presented four special performances of School of Rock – The Musical in an arena spectacular based on the original Broadway show and staged at the 16,000-capacity Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.
Lighting Designer Mark Hammer created a stunning lighting design and found an ingenious Robe RoboSpot solution for his extensive followspotting needs. Hammer worked under the direction of Great Big Events, who produced the show on behalf of Sydney Catholic Schools.
The stage was designed with a 270˚ viewing angle, complete with a full choir at the back for some sections of the show, and a prominent B-stage in the middle of the arena floor for ‘rock out’ moments, so Hammer needed multiple followspots. He thought it was a perfect time and scenario to specify four Robe RoboSpot systems to run 12 BMFL FollowSpot moving lights.
The 12 BMFL FollowSpots were paired with four RoboSpot BaseStations each running three fixtures, all supplied by Sydney based lighting vendors, Chameleon Touring Systems, and Hammer was delighted with the results. He often uses Robe products on his shows, but this was the first time he had spec’d the remote followspot system, although he admits to being impressed with it since one of the early Australian demo sessions presented by distributor Jands back in 2018. “Followspotting was vital to this show and with a 19 / 20 meter trim height I needed really bright units – and lots of them – so this was a ‘must-have’ on the lighting plot,” he explained.
Using RoboSpots was not only “significantly easier” for Hammer operationally than calling 12 individual manually operated followspots, but it was also hugely quicker and more practical for the Chameleon crew to rig the 12 BMFL fixtures and set up the four base stations which were backstage to the rear of one of the arena’s vomitory entrances.
The BMFLs were all front spots, positioned on the ends and at the center of the advanced truss which was above the audience just in front of the downstage edge of the main stage. This allowed Hammer to track the principals from multiple angles wherever they were as they moved around the stage and out in the arena to the B-stage. Having three spots on each person eliminated facial shadows and brought a palpable depth and precision to the lighting that made the actor’s pop out beautifully from all the background action, glowing and resonating in the high quality BMFL light output.
Hammer retained overall intensity and color control from the main lighting console with the RoboSpot operators taking care of the pan, tilt, zoom, and iris parameters from their BaseStations. While the operators were all initially unfamiliar with using the RoboSpot system, they were all experienced analog followspot operators who picked up the RoboSpotting system quickly and easily.
“RoboSpot met my expectations and in fact went way beyond,” noted Hammer with a large grin, “Many creative things are unlocked by using this system that simply aren’t possible when dealing with one flat beam of light.” He appreciated multiple other advantages like the BMFLs’ good range of CT whites, which were mostly running at the warm end of the spectrum, and also the smooth movement.
The main challenge with lighting the show – which follows the fortunes of wannabe rock star Dewey Finn posing as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school… and transforming a class of straight-A students into a badass rock band – was the tight timeframe for getting the show lit and programmed.
The fact that setting up and running 12 followspots was made so straightforward by utilizing the RoboSpot system greatly assisted in this, leaving Hammer with more time to concentrate on being creative, getting cues into the desk, and other more time-consuming elements of a very pressurized tech period. “It’s hassle-free to cue the system and I’ll definitely be using it again!” he concluded, adding a big THANK YOU to the “amazing” Chameleon crew, who were led by Anthony Carlon.
Further information from Robe lighting: www.robe.cz
