Grand Opening Marina Bay Sands Resort, Singapore

Posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Australian lighting designer Colin Baldwin worked closely with Laservision Mega Media for over four months to design and implement architectural and special effects lighting for the U.S. $5.9m Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort and Casino in Singapore, which officially opened on 23 June 2010.

Baldwin and his team of Australian lighting technicians embarked in June on a journey to pre-install, in time for the Grand Opening, some of the lighting assets that will form the basis of the future permanent show.

Equipment deployed for the opening event included 14 A&O Falcon 7k xenon searchlights, 18 Syncrolite 5k and 7k xenon searchlights, 14 DTS XR3000 moving head spots housed in Tempest domes, 36 CitySkape Xtreme LED washlights and to light the vast roofing over the casino, theatres and expo centre – 998 Illumination Physics LED washlights were installed.  Seven high powered optically pumped Laservision Stella Rays lasers totalling more than 300 watts, were deployed along the water’s edge of Marina Bay.

All fixtures were programmed on a grandMA2 console from a suite at the Fullerton Hotel directly across the bay.  Swedish designed Wireless Radio DMX transmitters and receivers were used to carry the 8 DMX universes 1km across Marina Bay to the resort.  Local Singapore production company ‘Showtec’ were engaged to provide additional lighting equipment and crewing services.

Baldwin was very pleased with the outcome.  “I’m very proud of all my team,” he said.  “They had to endure an extraordinary and difficult undertaking working on what was mostly a construction site up until the Opening.”

“Hats off to Colin Baldwin and his team for delivering a greater than expected show. An excellent world-class outcome,” commented Paul McCloskey, CEO & founder of Laservision. 

“Front page coverage in all local news media was testament to its being the defining vision for this official opening.”

www.colinbaldwin.com

LSC controls Eurovision Song Contest

Posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

The European Song Contest has been around for many years and LSC is proud to have been associated with it for a number of those years, supplying TDS 48-channel touring dimmers, e24 dimming systems and DMX distribution.

Norway won the 2009 ESC when the artist Alexander Rybak took the audience and voters by storm. Norway thus won the right to host this year’s event. The National Broadcaster of Norway, NRK hosted the 2010 ESC in the brand new Telenor Arena.

Suggesting that a maXim M lighting desk, as shown in the photograph here, could control a show the size of the European Song Contest is a bit ambitious to say the least, particularly since the small range of maXims can only control 512 DMX slots.

However the NRK is well aware that the maXim has a multitude of uses.

For this year’s ESC, the NRK utilised a maXim M supplied by Multitechnic in Oslo for Stage Motion control, drapery, silks and drop downs.

The maXim finished up controlling a Kinesys K2, Chain Master products as well as Six Wahlberg DMX controlled Winches, Six Wahlberg DMX controlled Curtain rollups designed specifically for the ESC and 3 DMX  Beamslides.
The maXim was the number 1 choice for NRK due to its reliability and simplicity of use for hands on control.

This year’s event was won by Lena Meyer-Landrut from Germany .

www.lsclighting.com.au

LSE Creates a Spectacle at the Mardan Palace Hotel

Posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009

Click image to enlarge

The end of May saw the spectacular opening ceremony of the five star Mardan Palace hotel take place in Antalya, Turkey drawing an illustrious international presence of celebrities and press. LSE, the Belgian based multi-media show company, worked with long-time collaborator Tara W Smith, the Australian Creative Director of Stargrace Ltd, to create an unforgettable visual experience for the opening.

The event, which took place over two days, was a high profile affair featuring presenters and performers including Sharon Stone, Richard Gere, Paris Hilton, Monica Belluci, Tom Jones and Seal.

Two multi-media shows took place over the two days, the first at the Grand Inauguration on 23 May, the second the following day at the ‘Dance of the Scorpion’ Beach Party on the hotel’s Scorpion Pier.

For the Grand Inauguration, Smith wanted to celebrate the historical influences, modern technology and imagination which go into creating a hotel such as the Mardan Palace.

“I wanted to bring to the hotel launch a bit of soul, to breath life into the design processes and influences which bring the actual construction into being,” explains Smith.

The show also celebrated the idea of East meets West as represented in the architecture of the hotel itself. “One wing represented Anatolya which we depicted with giant video projection and aerial belly dancers, emphasising the passion of the orient with choreographed flames,” explains Smith.

“The second wing represented Europe which we visualized with a daring silk aerial act, high above the audience’s heads, and infused with a fountain ballet; the two were then linked by the middle section with a laser representation of the famous Bosphorus Bridge, representing Turkey.

Each section of the hotel was individually highlighted and ‘brought to life’ during the performance before reaching an explosive crescendo at the finale.

Wound into these themes was that of the imaginative process which a designer experiences during the art of creation. A kind of dream space was recreated using transparent floating balls on the central water feature and aerial performers lowered from the tops of the buildings to ‘paint’ the design of the hotel across its surface.

The evening’s events centred around the inner pool courtyard and used multi-media effects to illustrate these historical, technological and imaginative references. The building façade, roof tops, lighthouse tower, the pool itself and even the beach beyond, acted as projection surfaces, resulting in over 200m of video projection.  More than 700 pyrotechnic firing points on the facade and in excess of 30 lasers, choreographed flames and fountains were also used, augmenting the performances of the aerial performers.

In all a total of 30 trailers and 150 crew were required to bring this spectacle to fruition.

“The evening was very well received,” states Smith. “We even had ladies in the audience crying with emotion over the Imagination scene, so we knew we were reaching our audience!”

LSE’s team for the Mardan Palace Spectacular was headed by Managing Director, Patrick Awouters and included Technical Director, Erik Lybeer,Lighting Director, Theo Cox and Project Coordinator Marc Agboton.

“I have worked with LSE for 9 years and really love doing these projects with them,” continues Smith. “Patrick has always put a lot of trust and faith in my work and believes whole heartedly in the team he has created. We all come together as a united force and the results we achieve are testiment to that teamwork.”

Previous collaborations between Tara W Smith and LSE have included the SEA Games in Vietnam, Moscow Sport Games and St Petersburg 300 years by Hiro Yamagata. Several more collaborative projects – on both a grand scale and for luxurious private functions – are scheduled for later this year.

iLED ColorBank H.O at Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony

Posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Click image to enlarge

The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest. Featuring more than 15,000 performers, the ceremony lasted over four hours and was watched by over 1 billion viewers – the largest live television audience in history!

One of the most complex segments of the ceremony was the arrival of the astronaut – depicting China’s ambitions in space – and the 15 metre, 16 tonned sphere representing the Earth. 58 acrobats tumbled rightside up, sideways or upside down on its surface, while the globe was illuminated internally by 122 iLED ColorBank H.O fixtures.

The ColorBank H.O is a high powered wash fixture, suitable for use in multiple applications. This IP65 rated fixture is also suited for all weather outdoor use. Consisting of 108 1W LEDs – 36 Red, 36 Green, and 36 Blue – the LEDBank H.O features 15° optics and delivers a beam angle of 17° x 12°. On board automated programs can be operated via master/slave or DMX operation, and up to 28 units of this fixture can be daisy chained for ease of use.

www.ula.com.au

High End Systems at Beijing Olympic Ceremonies

Posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008

On 08/08/08, the eyes of the world focused on the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The “One World One Dream” theme was illustrated in a spectacle from China’s National Stadium, nicknamed the “Bird’s Nest.”

High End Systems (a new member of the Belgium-based Barco Group) not only played a starring role in the ceremonies, but helped set some records: for the largest quantity of media servers (110 HES Axons) in any live event, and for creating the largest high-def projection — in this instance, one clip covered a screen encircling the stadium that measured 1,942′ long by 45′ high.

All effects were achieved in real time using the Axon media servers and projectors with 78 HES Orbital Heads. Four Wholehog 3 lighting consoles controlled the Axon media servers in the ceremonies, connected with 12 DP 2000s.

HES Axons created a number of nonstop visual effects in the show, from the projected visuals encircling a video ring–called the “membrane”–around the top of the stadium to the projections on the giant globe. The HES Orbital Heads were used to project images onto performers on the field.

The Olympic Ceremonies lighting designer is Sha Xiao Lin. Dennis Gardner is the chief lighting programmer and digital lighting/video programmer. Gardner says, “The show was the largest I have ever done. Normally I have worked with about 6-8 media servers and this was just huge at 110! This was my first time to use Axon and I found it very easy to use and very flexible. For the scale of the show, it was ideal!”

“The Globe was projected on from eight projectors, external to the globe, set up in four groups approximately 90 degrees from one another,” Gardner explains. “We had no Orbital Heads for this one as we needed a much bigger image and more brightness. We used Axons and their blending feature to help achieve this effect. We had the globe recovered with white material to get the best from the projection; the original was dark grey.”

Gardner describes the Wholehog 3 console setup: “We programmed the show on one Wholehog 3 network running version 2.6 software. We had the network set up as one server console that was never touched and just used as the server; two client consoles at FOH for myself and (my programming assistant) Steve Kellaway; and one console as a roamer for programming around the stadium to get better viewpoints. I have been using the Wholehog 3 console since its birth and I feel it’s the best tool for the job. The ease at programming lots of media servers and being able to link to time code was a joy. The show was run on LTC time code, which came from the music. The whole system was rock solid.”

HES distributor Leifull in China purchased and installed the HES equipment, and also created the media server room specifically for the Axons. HES sent four product specialists to help with set up, with Zach Peletz from Austin serving as product support on the scene from May until the closing ceremonies, to be televised August 24 on NBC-TV. The closing ceremonies will use the same equipment but in a different design, described by Gardner as having a “bit more party feel.”

Another Wholehog 3 worked in the TV broadcast booth in Beijing’s International Broadcast Center. Broadcast lighting director John Pappas used the console to control a media server for Seven Network Australia’s broadcasting.

www.highend.com

Martin Lights Beijing Summer Olympic Games: LD Sha Xiao Lan Interview

Posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008

Martin lighting is also employed in several other areas including 800 Martin fixtures used for an Opening Ceremony at an alternate site in Tsingtao (Qingdao), home to sailing events. Several on-location TV studios are also using Martin gear including US television network NBC on the “Today” show and Mexican TV network Televisa.
www.martin.com

MA Lighting grandMA at Beijing Olympics

Posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008

With the slogan “One World, One Dream” all nations were invited by the People’s Republic of China to the Summer Olympics 2008, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. The Opening Ceremony has been held in the Beijing National Stadium, – the “Bird’s Nest” – which can seat as many as 91,000 spectators. More than 2,300 DMX controlled fixtures and 45,000 parameters transformed the stadium into a never before seen sea of lights. 3 x grandMA full-size plus 3 x grandMA full-size as backup, 2 x grandMA light as well as 46 x MA NSPs controlled the highly sophisticated lighting network during the Opening Ceremony.

“These are the Games of the records so is the Opening Ceremony”, states Mr. Sha, Lighting Designer of the Opening and Closing Ceremony. “And to control this never before seen rig of lights there was just one choice: the grandMA system from MA Lighting. In a show like this pure reliability and proven functionality are second to none”, he adds. “Combined with the outstanding network performance of the grandMA, this system is proving again its leading position in the market.”

Paul Collison, who was responsible for the control system and broadcast lighting, said of the preparation for the Opening Ceremony: “I was first contacted in December 2007. Mr. Sha Xiao Lan, the lighting designer for this auspicious event, who offered me the task to look after the lighting control system. We knew by this time that it would be an MA Lighting system as reliability and proven network power were key. We started patching and designing the network in February 2008. One session ran the wash lights in the roof, the second session ran all the other wash fixtures in the system and the third session ran all of the profile or spot fixtures.”

“Once we had decided on the partition it was down to the patching business. When dealing with a couple of thousand fixtures and having almost ten different fixture types, you need to be able to identify things fairly quickly”, continued Collison, “I started with trying to match the lamp model number with it’s ID. So for example, the Vari*Lite VL3000 spots start their fixture ID’s at 3001, the Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1200 at 1201 etc. Once this process was done it was time to assign DMX addresses.”

Collison further explains: “Power locations had already been decided however there were lots of them. Too many to take DMX to each one. We decided on six locations in the roof, two on level three, three on level two, two on the ground level and one in the pit. We started in the roof as this was the hardest. We simply broke down the roof into six sections. Once the roof was done, the rest was pretty easy. The balcony levels all neatly fitted in, as did the ground.”

It was important for the system to have redundancy. This was required throughout multiple aspects of the system, both in the software (for example, the Rapid Spanning Tree protocol) and other parts, like redundant power supplies in the switches, and the ability to pass information and data passively. The later point meant, that if an ethernet switch failed, the data would travel through the failed switch and on to the next one without fault. The final point was that the actual fibre optic cable itself needed to be of military grade.

“Afterwards, all of the fixtures needed to be given a position in the grandMA 3D world for the pre-programming sessions”, adds Collison, “This gave us the chance to use the wireframe visualiser in the grandMA as well as being ready for grandMA 3D to come online. Each session only had two user profiles. One was for the operator, the other for administration. Each session was named with reference to it’s colour as were the show files – red, green and blue.”

“We now had to set-up the pre-programming studio at the Beijing Olympic Committee Headquarters. This existed in various modes but the one I liked the best was each session with it’s visualiser on a plasma screen in front of them. This, combined with a projector fed from grandMA video, with each session blended in to form one picture worked a treat. It allowed the team to see their programming all at work. By beginning of May we started the transition from pre-programming to on-site. Fixture by fixture, truss by truss, the system came online. On June 12th, rehearsals began.” On August 8th the Opening Ceremony attracted the attention of millions.

Altogether 2,342 fixtures were used and controlled by grandMA for the show which consisted of, amongst others, 308 x Vari*Lite VL3500 spot, 316 x VL3000 spot, 180 x VL3500 wash, 112 x Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1200, 980 x Martin Mac 2000 Wash and 162 Martin Mac 2000 XB Wash.

The first session had 15,921 parameters with 14 MA NSPs and 834 fixtures, the second 13,503 parameters with 16 MA NSPs and 884 fixtures, the third session 15,987 parameters, with 16 MA NSP and 624 fixtures. HP Pro-Curve 2626 field switches, HP Pro-Curve 8212zl and kilometres of multi mode fiber optic cable were the backbone of the huge network.

The video system under the creative direction of media artist Andree Verleger from Germany included some 110 x Axon media servers, 86 x Christie Roadster Projectors with Orbital Heads and 63 x Cinema Christie Projectors. “I am absolutely excited about the professionalism and support I was getting also for “my” video part during all those month from MA Lighting and the entire lighting crew – although not controlled by the grandMA system”, states Verleeger. “This underlines how important it is that lighting and video are going hand in hand. This teamwork gave trust and an ongoing motivation to realize another record in this show: the world’s largest projection screen with around 600m.

Zhang Yimou was chosen as artistic director. Sha Xiao Lan was the lighting designer, Paul Collision in charge of the control system and the broadcast lighting. Feng Bin, Wu Guoquing and Huang Tao worked as grandMA programmers. Lighting assistants were Quan Xiaojie, Zhang Wei, Wang Zhiyi, Ma Jiebo and Wang Tong. As lighting production company worked CCTV – Central China Television in conjunction with Quan Jiang, Shang Hai Televison, Gong Ti, Bei Ao, and Feng Shang Shi Ji. ACE – Advanced Communication Equipment Co Ltd. was responsible for the technical realisation. ACE is MA Lighting’s distributor in China.

www.malighting.com