Carson – who has worked with HSL on several previous projects including Chase & Status – was instrumental in getting the company on-board, where the account was project managed by Mike Oates.

Says Carson, “I wanted a lighting supplier that I knew could deliver the best quality kit, crew and attitude – HSL were my first choice”.

Sandé’s meteoric career trajectory which includes some interesting and inventive collaborations – has included three number one singles and a number one album ‘Our Version of Events’ in the last two years and she performed at both Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the London Olympics.

Mike Oates  comments, “It was great to work with Neil again on another new and exciting artist. As usual, he came up with a stylish design fusing quirkiness and simplicity that looked really cool!”

The design was based on three trusses and primarily Robe moving lights – a combination of ROBIN 600E Spots and Washes – 35 in total, which were spread across the trusses, together with seven of Robe’s ColorWash 750E AT Tungstens.

Using these fixtures, especially the smaller, lighter brighter ROBINs, enabled Carson
to use smaller trussing, which all helped in saving space for an extremely challenging truck pack!

Carson’s initial brief was that the lighting should help make the show more personal, intimate and focused on Sandé and her captivating performance. It was really important that there were no visual distractions, and that the raw emotion of her music was at the centre of attention.

The ColorWash 750E AT Tungstens were rigged on the front truss and used to key light Sandé and the six piece band.

On the deck, Carson positioned eight Martin MAC Viper profiles along the back of the stage, plus six GLP Impression LED washes, used for side lighting Sande and adding low level cross-stage general colouring.

There were also eight single floor PARs dotted around to augment the side lighting, all run in open white adding a nice flourish of tungsten warmth.

Right upstage were three Nova Flower effects – used for specific accents and punctuation points – and behind these, the back comprised a custom drape bearing Sandé’s name.

A total of 21 x vertically orientated Showtec active Sunstrips were strategically placed across the three trusses adding architecture and form to the stage look and utilised for lifts and punches for selected choruses.

Boosting the ambience were 30 individual over-size light bulbs, each attached to a different length run of TRS hanging down ‘randomly’ from two of the trusses via outrigged drop-bars.

HSL also supplied two Robert Juliat Ivanhoe follow spots, and Carson was joined on the road by HSL technicians Mark Callaghan and Steve Bliss, “They were brilliant,” he comments.

Carson controlled all the lighting on a Chamsys MagicQ 100 desk with a Wing, which he found great for doing the daily cloning and morphing of moving lights when using house rigs in Europe.

For these European shows – a mixture of clubs and theatres – the only space available for any lighting kit to be carried was a corner of the backline trailer, just enough to accommodate the 30 hanging bulbs, a small dimmer and the console. These were added in to whatever house system was available at each venue.

Says Carson, “HSL did a fantastic job! The company is large enough to have all the kit you might want and personal enough to have real integrity and care. Mike’s passion for the job and the industry is truly amazing!”

Date of issue : 12^th May 2013.

The merger sees PSI’s highly successful and well established operations in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic continue unchanged with the same directors, staff, facilities and distinct identity. PSI now has the additional advantage of access to HSL’s massive equipment inventory and additional resources.

Combined annual sales are expected to reach £15 million in the next 24 months, there are over 100 full time skilled and talented employees and the new working relationship will enable both companies’ UK and Irish operations to be streamlined, seamless and highly competitive.

Says HSL’s MD Simon Stuart, “Joining forces with PSI presented an ideal opportunity for us to work with like-minded, people-focused individuals in Ireland who are also dedicated to providing the very best equipment and services.

“PSI’s reputation for excellence and innovation is right in tune with our core values. We look forward enormously to a long and fruitful alliance that will strengthen our brand, and see PSI continue its business retaining the style and attitude that everyone loves and respects.”

PSI will have HSL’s vast stock and resources at its disposal – including over 5000 moving lights, three kilometres of trussing and 800 square metres of LED surfaces.

Last year both HSL and PSI expanded and moved into new warehouse premises – in PSI’s case, both their Belfast and Dublin sites.

PSI has three Directors – Brian Reilly and Sean Pagel in Belfast and Ciaran Tallon who runs the Dublin facility. HSL Directors Simon Stuart and Mike Oates are based in Blackburn, UK.

PSI’s Brian Reilly comments, “We are very excited about this co-operation with HSL. It will enable us to offer even more efficiency and value to our clients, with a greater and more diverse range of equipment to enhance everyone’s creativity and imaginative goals”.

In recent years, the two companies have been collaborating closely on a number of high profile projects and that existing healthy crossover of ideas, experience, knowledge and equipment is now cemented in this new relationship.

It’s a win-win situation all round!

Ends.

Date of issue : 29^th April 2013.

The show, produced by Manoto TV is recorded in Capital Studios, Wandsworth, south London and broadcast on primetime via the Marjan Television Network. It is a massively popular voice competition – Up to 1.3 million public votes have been cast per show – inspired by Iranian pop superstar Googoosh, who is also one of the three judges. The judges act as mentors for the ten finalists appearing in the TV series, all aspiring Iranian singers selected from hundreds of hopefuls.

Simon Stuart and Sean McGlone are Project Managing for HSL. Simon comments, “We are really happy to be working with Steff again who is one of the rising young talents of our industry. His designs are always fresh and inventive”.

Jones’ brief for the lighting design was to make it vibrant, versatile, exciting and dramatically different to a conventional LE reality show and talent competition.

In addition to the contestant performances there is usually at least one guest artist appearance per show, so flexibility is a key to making each section of the show look unique and bringing a true ‘extravaganza’ feel to the space.

Other challenges included fitting a large amount of lights into a relatively compact studio space.

Jones worked closely with renowned set and scenic designer Florian Wieder in developing the overall aesthetics, which are heavily video based.

Each week, he also collaborates with the Potion Pictures team who create the graphics, and Creative Director Andrew Keep, who comes up with specific requirements and requests. Jones and his programmers then create the looks and scenes in line with the brief and graphics for that week.

Most of the key lighting is done with ten Vari*Lite VL1000s. There are also around 30 ETC Source Fours fitted with ¼ CTB to balance with the set LED screens, and these are used to light the judges, key areas of the set and for back lighting.

Each judge also has a Kino Miniflow with 0.3ND positioned on their desk, to light under their chins and eliminate shadows.

The audience is back-lit with six Robe LEDWash 600s and front lit with 2-lite blinders covered in Lee 152 Pale Gold filter.

The effects rig comprises 14 x Robe ROBIN 300 Beams, five Robe ColorBeam 700E ATs and 25 x Martin MAC 700 Spots, all above the stage and on the floor.

Behind the rear video screen – which splits apart – are 27 Sunstrips and two MAC 700 Profiles, used for high impact stage entrances.

Other lights include a selection of ARRI Pups on stands used from mobile audience and backstage shots, three 5K fresnels for cross lighting during the larger ‘production numbers’ and two of HSL’s Robert Juliat Alex followspots mounted on truss chairs at the back of the audience seating.

For atmospherics, there are three K1 hazers.

Playback video content and graphics are fed to all the various LED surfaces via two Green Hippo Hippotizer HD media servers, and two Compulite Ultra Violet control consoles are operated by Alex Mildhall (running graphics, effects and moving lights) and David Bishop, Andrew Harris and Pete Aubrey all sharing duties on operating the generics.

HSL pulled all the stops out to get the equipment prepped and turned around in a 48 hour period once confirmed for the project!

Jones comments, “Thanks to Simon and Sean who were contactable 24/7 as usual in the run up which is great, and their attention to detail to every aspect of the project – despite the short timeframe – was fantastic! Additionally I had that amazing HSL service from several other individuals including Mike Oates, Lee Farrell and Ryan Hopkins – all-in-all it was superlative teamwork!”

Ends.

Date of issue : 12^th March 2013.

The critically acclaimed chart topping singer-songwriter’s show is sexy, sassy, full on and highly theatrical, featuring an impressive array of props and stunning costumes in addition to her vibrant performance.

HSL’s Mike Oates Project Managed and comments, “Rita Ora is one of the hottest emerging talents in the UK, and Andy’s light show was every bit as original and exciting as her stage presence. We are extremely proud to be involved!”

Andy has worked with Rita Ora for the last four months. The first shows were promos, for which HSL supplied some ‘specials’ packages. Having worked with the Blackburn based company for around eight years, it was a ‘no-brainer’ for Andy when it came to recommending a lighting company to service the tour. “When given the choice, it will always be HSL,” he declares!

His dynamic touring rig for Ora’s energy fuelled ‘Radioactive’ tour was completely floor based. At each venue he also hooked into a front truss prepared to their LX spec with profile and wash fixtures.

He explains that a key starting point for the design was that it had to be scalable so it could fit into any of the venues on the itinerary and look good however large or small the stage space happened to be!

Along the back of stage were four vertical trussing towers, and in each of these were two Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs and two GLP Impression 120 RZ Zoom LED wash fixtures. These were carefully positioned to produce massive epic looks from upstage, essentially amplifying the visual impression of the rig!

He chose Robe’s powerful ColorSpot 2500E ATs because there was also a Pixled FX-11 LED screen upstage, so any lighting instruments needed to be bright enough to compete and hold their own!

There were 14 Atomic strobes, one each on top of the towers complete with colour scrollers, with eight spread out across the band’s backline and two downstage at the sides. High-impact strobe chases reinforced and accentuated the rockiest numbers which could get even trippier because of the way the strobes were ‘layered’.

Twelve Clay Paky Sharpie were arranged in groups of three – ACL style – in the four corners of the stage. These were always flashed in their respective groups of three and provided masses of scope for stabs and accents as well as a huge spectacular cross beam effects when all on together!

Along the front of the stage were four i-Pix BB4 LED wash lights lighting the band in the footlights position, with another four side stage providing  low level cross lighting onto Ora.

Behind Ora and in front of the band were four JTE PixelLine LED battens, rigged vertically on individual floor bases and pixel-mapped in a Catalyst media server.

All lighting was controlled by Andy using his grandMA2 lite console – his desk of choice –and he clearly had a lot of fun producing such an exciting, adrenalised show to match Ora’s flamboyant performance.

He concludes, “HSL did a brilliant job as always on the tour. I really enjoy an excellent relationship with them – nothing is ever a problem and Mike Oates is incredible!! There is really no other rental company in the UK to compare with the service or friendliness”.

Ends.

Date of issue : 26^th February 2013.

Working for TPi Awards show producers Mondiale Publishing and with Event Manager Ben Chadwick, the visual design was created by HSL’s Tim Fawkes in collaboration with Mike Oates. HSL’s event Project Manager was Spantax.

All video content plus the sound track for the opening video was created by Digital Insanity.

It was really fun working with Richard Bagshaw from Digital Insanity, Spantax says. As a team we all gelled perfectly together and this was one of those jobs were the different creative’s bounce ideas off of each other and both lighting and video end up influencing each other to come up with the perfect result.

The basic concept was to make it “Funky, fun and more rock n roll than in previous years,” states Fawkes, adding that the biggest challenge was being under pressure to produce something amazing looking to impress all the top industry professionals who were present!

The Awards honour the most popular technical production, industry events and personalities of the year, and over 1000 guests attended to network, party, and appreciate the industry’s achievements in the last 12 months in the action packed Awards ceremony, presented by Lauren Laverne.

Other challenges for the event design included low ceiling height and limited roof weight loading in the room, which was greatly helped by the light weight of the Robe LED fixtures!

Multiple trusses were installed in the roof to provide all the lighting positions. The room was long width-ways, so it was important to try and ensure that everyone was pulled into the onstage action when it started, and also to involve a substantial number of tables further back in the middle section.

Fawkes decided on an innovative asymmetric video screen look for the stage, with a mixture of portrait and landscape format LED screens hung at different depths at the back.

He matched this with the lighting design. To bring a beamy rock ‘n’ roll edge to the room he used Robe LEDBeam 100s in clusters of four – ACL style – in-between the onstage screens and also dotted around the stage and the room. “The sheer speed and the great colours of these fixtures gives numerous options for modern looks as well as being able to create more traditional ACL looks” he explains.

At the back of the room they installed a scaled down version of the same screen design (all screens were supplied by VER) also interspersed by batches of LEDBeam 100s – Fawkes used a total of 132 Robe LEDBeam 100s!

Eighty-two Robe CityFlex48 LED multi-purpose fixtures were dotted around the room, 24 were used in high res mode against the black in the back wall, and the rest up-lighting the shimmering voile room-wrap (supplied by Blackout).

Of the 32 x Robe ROBIN MMX Wash Beams, eight were used over the stage, covering back light and creating breakup / beam effects, while the other 24 were placed on various trusses around the room to pick up on the walk-ups and make up comprehensive table looks and breakups.

Twenty-four of Robe’s new DLF LED wash lights were chosen as the work horse for the stage light – “The internal barn doors allowed for great control over the light spill when working in close proximity to the tables and the LED screens”.

Thirty three LEDWash 600s were used for the majority of the table lighting all around the space, and the B-Stage in the centre of the room was covered with four LEDWash 600s.

Fawkes operated the show using a Hog 3 Full Boar console and all the Robes were supplied by Robe UK.

HSL’s crew boss Mark Scrimshaw led a team of seven techs, and they plus Fawkes and Spantax commenced the get in on the Sunday at 7 a.m. and were ready for the show on Monday at 6 p.m. including full schedule of technical run throughs and rehearsals beforehand.

Numerous comments have referenced it as one of the best looking TPi Awards shows to date in terms of aesthetics, and HSL is extremely proud to have been able to show off its design capabilities in such a high profile industry event.

Fawkes concludes, “The pressure was really on to produce something special – and you are effectively performing for the whole industry. Our team was extremely strong, and WYSIWYG was an invaluable tool right through the process that meant that everything ran like clockwork on site”.

Ends.

Date of issue : 15^th February 2013.

Bewley has worked for Enter Shikari for the last five years. They are among the hardest working artists on the live circuit, bringing their unique highly adrenalized electro-metal sounds and stage performances to a loyal and enthusiastic international fanbase.

Around 18 months ago, HSL came on-board to supply equipment for their UK and European work after Bewley was impressed by the people, equipment, service and attitude of the Blackburn based operation.

“We needed a complete solutions company for lighting and visuals … and HSL was a great choice,” he states.

HSL’s project manager Mike Oates says, “We love working with Steve and the band. The ideas are always fresh and interesting and the shows are full-on, lively, fun and innovative – both musically and visually”.

The stage design concept for this section of the Flash Flood tour was an evolution from previous incarnations and derivative from the distinctive apex-down anti-corporate triangles of the album’s artwork.

It represented a development from the raw, industrial lighting looks of the past, incorporating more layers of video and a hint of the conceptual transition in anticipation of the forthcoming new album.

Playing academy sized venues – two nights in each – Bewley also created a practical and adaptable structural backbone for the stage based around three 4 metre high triangular shaped pods, each clad in Martin EC20 LED screen.

The LED was supported by a custom trussing framework designed and built by HSL complete with special floor-mount bases. Each pod featured two legs of EC20 down each side, each with a video panel at the top, kicking forward making a Y-shape either side. A front-facing 3D triangular shape – also angled forward – was made up from three Chroma-Q Color Block DB4 LED battens at the top of each tower.

Video content – stored on a Hippotizer media server supplied by HSL – was produced by Light Rhythm Visuals (LRV), who were commissioned by Bewley. A varied collection of material was based on a combination of ideas from LRV’s Ben Sheppey, himself and the band.

Video and lighting elements and effects were synched together manually and split second perfectly with the music by Bewley, triggering the Hippotizer from his grandMA2 light console.

The overhead lighting rig was hung on the house trusses of each venue.

For moving lights he chose 12 Clay Paky 1500W Shotlight Washes – four on the back and four on the mid truss, with the remaining four on the floor. They were combined with the house spot moving lights and Moles at each venue.

The majority of the touring lighting rig was deployed on the floor, starting with 18 x Robe LEDBeam 100s, which are ideal Enter Shikari ‘mayhem’ lights with their mega fast movement and lightning-quick colour changing and strobing effects!

Ten Chroma-Q Color Force 12 LED fixtures were tucked in around the edges of the stage providing subtle band facial lights – fitting the bill perfectly for the desired low-lit front environment.

Bewley says, “As always, the service from HSL was amazing, the kit was in excellent condition and Mike ensured that everything was spot-on throughout!”

He worked alongside his tech Tim Spillman on the tour, which was a massive success and concluded another hectic year of touring for Enter Shikari, which is set to continue in 2013!

Ends.

Date of issue : 15^th January 2013.

HSL is one of the most proactive UK rental companies and has been nominated several times for the TPi Award for Favourite Lighting Rental Company, winning in 2008.

Being nominated for Video Services as well reflects the continuing convergence between lighting and certain elements of live video under the ‘visuals’ banner, and with it, a serious investment by HSL into LED screens and media server technology.

This took a major leap forward last year with the purchase of Martin LED screen and the full complement of Green Hippo Media Servers, Catalyst and AI.

This generally growing trend enables HSL to offer competitive lighting and LED screens/playback control packages coupled with video projectors and bespoke Video Systems, all from the same source.

HSL’s MD Simon Stuart states, “It is an amazing achievement to receive not one but two TPi nominations, especially coming from our peers in the industry, which adds proper value and credibility. It’s also a great tribute to our crew and ‘front-line road warriors’ who are out there representing the company day-to-day on shows and events.  We have had an incredible year in terms of business and are really looking forward to the TPi Awards night when we can catch up with all our friends and colleagues and enjoy a fantastic evening”.

The year has been extremely busy for HSL which has seen them supply lighting and visuals to a host of high profile artists and festivals as well as a host of television and theatrical productions, corporate shows and live events.

The 2013 TPi Awards takes place on 11^th February 2013 at the Novotel West London.

Ends.

Date of issue : 18^th December 2012.

These were specified by Cardiff and London based Lighting Designer Steffan Jones, who designed lighting and video for the raft of programmes, many featuring live artists. He was working for production companies Boomerang PLC in association with Alfresco TV and Apollo TV, and co-producers Mr. Producer.

HSL’s TV and broadcast specialist Sean McGlone co-ordinated the project. He comments, “It’s always a pleasure working with Steff. His drive, enthusiasm, imagination and keen visual eye are refreshing and invigorating, and his designs always interesting”.

NEPC is the largest OB and studio facilities company in Wales, and the batch recording session included the creation of popular programmes like “Noson”, “Carolau Gobaith” and others.

Flexibility was the key to the lighting design, and so the rig was based on offering numerous options for Jones. He had to embrace and light a plethora of music and performance genres – from classical to pop, urban and rap – plus radically different daily set ups and formats across the 10 intensive days.

He also had to consider a heterogeneity of ideas from artists, managements, creative, choreographers as – well as his own – and incorporate all into a coherent look, feel and signature ambience for each of the specific shows being recorded.

This was all in a very short timescale, and often with limited rehearsals!

It was a question of thinking rapidly, often out-of-the-box and having real confidence in the design and set up for Jones and his programming team of Bill Peachment (moving lights and LED) and Chris Barroccu (generics), who both used Compulite Vector consoles.

While the overhead lighting rig had to be ultimately versatile, the floor elements were swapped daily, together with the LED screens to help keep the visuality for each show different and unique.

HSL supplied a selection of moving lights from all the major manufacturers – Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots and 3500 Washes; Robe ROBIN 600 LEDWashes, Robe ROBIN 600E Washes, 300 Beams, ColorWash 2500E ATs, and ColorSpot 700E ATs; Martin MAC III Performances and eight of the new MAC Viper Spots; Clay Paky Sharpies; Chauvet 230SR Legends; GLP Impressions and four Nova Flowers.

These were deployed in the air and on the floor.

HSL also delivered PixelPARs and PixelLine 1044 LED battens, together with standard single PAR 64s and bars-of-6 PARs, over 20 Studio 5Ks and nearly 50 ETC Source Fours

Seventy-four Pulsar ChromaStrip 900s from HSL were ensconced into the set pieces designed by Phil Williams, which also changed every day, and the Lighting department also controlled LED strip-lighting on the set steps.

Atmospheric effects were created with the combination of three different types of machine – Glaciator Dry Icers, Jem K1 Hazers for the classical shows and DF50 diffusion hazers for the pop and rock shows. HSL also supplied Robert Juliat Alex follow spots.

The video content was controlled and played back via a Hippotizer media server.

Sometimes gauzes were added to vary the look again, creating more layers and bringing a slightly different dimension to the studio floor.

Despite the gruelling work schedule and intense pressure with things often changing up-to-the-minute, everything went very smoothly for the recording sessions.

HSL has worked with and supported Jones since the start of his career. He comments, “HSL are always efficient and flexible whatever the circumstances. The equipment was in excellent condition as always, and I look forward to working with the company and people for years to come”.

Jones’ Gaffer was Noel ‘Roly’ Smith and the systems/LED tech was Chris Banks. The series director was Ronw Protheroe.

Ends.

Date of issue : 5^th December 2012.

The lighting design by Peter Barnes, directed / operated out on the road by Neil Trenell of Fix8, proved that imaginative and intelligent use of lighting and effects can bring serious layers of magic to a high-impact show.

The tour was project managed for HSL by Mike Oates who comments, “Production North under the technical direction of Iain Whitehead co-ordinated another superb looking and highly entertaining show, and we were really pleased to be involved”.

Barnes and Trenell worked closely with creative directors Fatima Robinson and Beth Honan, who commissioned the set design from Bruce Rogers. They also initiated the video and visuals concepts, bringing a lively mix of footage to the picture, played back across an upstage pyramid shaped set clad with LED panels and a set of stairs immediately in front of it.

The lighting which matched and contrasted this as Cheryl’s fast paced, slickly choreographed show unfolded was based around three trusses. The front one was split into two sections to maximise coverage of a catwalk extending from the middle of the stage out into the audience.

The back truss was rigged with 14 Clay Paky Sharpies on drop-bars, emulating the shape of the LED screen plus eight Martin MAC 2K XB Washes and ten Martin Atomic strobes.

The mid truss was 60 ft wide and contained five MAC 2K XB Washes and six MAC3Ks, while the front truss had 16 MAC 2K XB Washes and six MAC 3 Profiles in total.

On the floor were ten Sharpies stationed on the stairs which mimicked the pyramid shape of the main upstage LED screen.

Above the B-Stage just in front of the FOH mixer position, a box truss was flown to provide positions for ten Sharpies and ten MAC 2K XB Washes.

HSL supplied two Robert Juliat Lancelot FOH follow spots, and Trenell operated the show using two grandMA Lites and two NPUs, with two Green Hippo HD i7 media servers supplied by Fix8. These stored and ran all the show’s video playback, triggered from the grandMA2.

The general aesthetic was simple, strong and dynamic, reflecting the more urban direction of Cheryl’s recent music and live performances – which is a great hit with her fans.

All the lighting fixtures were worked hard and in a truly multi-purpose capacity. Clever programming – completed during five intensive days and nights at Elstree Studios – combined with eye-catching video gave the hi-energy show a big, bold, bright performance context.

Barnes and Trenell made much use of the frost filter on the Sharpies which diffuses the output very nicely so they can double as highly effective washes.

Trenell worked alongside an HSL crew of three – Johnny Harper, Jon Trincas and Chris Roper – who he comments were “Fantastic – great fun, hard workers, very dedicated – and we made an excellent team”.

He adds, “As always, working with HSL was a complete pleasure, everything was spot-on … and Mike Oates is awesome!”

IMAG video was directed by Ruary MacPhie with the camera package, PPU and side screen projection system delivered by XL Video, the LED screens sourced from VER and audio from Wigwam.

Ends.

Date of issue : 30^th October 2012.

HSL has worked with Production North on many different projects. Once again, Mike Oates project managed for the Blackburn based company, with set, visuals and lighting designed by Peter Barnes, working in close conjunction with Diversity’s creative director and leader, Ashley Banjo.

On the road, lighting was looked after and operated by Neil Trenell. An HSL crew of six took care of lighting and video and the Kinesys system, together with rigger John Ashton, who put in the 58 points each day.

Sarah Hollis, production manager for Production North, remarked that it was “Excellent” to deal with one company and a single HSL crew chief – Steve Major – covering lighting, video, staging, rigging and automation departments. They were extremely happy with the service and attention to detail for which HSL is renowned.

The futuristic Tron styled and shaped stage set was inspired by Banjo’s original narrative threads which set the scene as the troupe got sucked into a video game and ‘digitised’ … a serious situation from which they had to escape … and so the show unfolds.

Lighting

The lighting brief was to make the show appear significantly large and have impact. Presenting dance in an arena environment is a very different dynamic to that of music, and there was massive emphasis on all visuals, both to keep the storyline animated and to help pump the excitement and energy of the dance routines!

The lighting rig contained over 80 moving lights – a mix of Clay Paky, Martin Professional, Robe and Vari*Lite fixtures – which were strategically positioned all over the rig and set in optimum positions. Barnes was very insistent that lightsources should be clearly seen, which also made them ultimately focusable. At the same time, he was careful that no areas onstage became cluttered with lighting.

HSL also supplied numerous generic lighting fixtures including Showtec Sunstrips, JTE PixelPARs, PAR 36s, i-Pix Satellites, 4-cell Moles and Studio Due City Colour floods, spread out around the trusses and set. There was also no shortage of atmospherics with several smoke and haze machines scattered around.

Trenell programmed and ran all lighting on a grandMA2 light console with another running in full tracking backup. Most cues were triggered by MIDI timecode simultaneous to the video playback, which was activated via the audio tracks running on QLab.

Video Screens

The 10 metre wide 4.5 metre high LED screen upstage – which split in half for entrances / exits -  was made up from Martin Professional EC-10 panels. HSL made a substantial investment in this and the EC-20 technology last year, and it has all been in constant use.

Banjo specifically wanted a large screen onstage to make a statement – and it certainly had the desired effect. Its size was further enhanced with an aluminium surround.

The two downstage most of three-per-side large scenic side chevrons were clad with Martin EC-20 panels, extending the depth and dimensions of the performance area and giving it a tunnel like feel.

In addition to the onstage screen and the chevrons, the other area covered in EC-20 screen was a circular ‘portal’ which descended onto the front of the stage at various moments and was used to transport Diversity around the ‘game’ and assist with some entrances and exits.

All video content was produced by Clive Silver of CS Media.

Moving It

HSL crew member Paddy Neilly operated the Kinesys system which used their Vector control software.

There were three moving elements: The upstage screen, the portal and a triangular pyramid which flew in from the ceiling and contained two aerialists for the finale.

There were around 110 movement cues in the busy show, and in the final scenes he used all four playbacks on the Vector.

The back screen weighed around 2 tonnes and was rigged on two master beam trolleys running on a toothed encoder system, driven by Kinesys Elevation 1+’ controllers and six slaves. The extreme accuracy of the Kinesys system was needed to ensure that when the two halves of the screen were butted up, the join was invisible!

The Portal, just over 3 metres high had a 5 metre diameter circular frame, made from custom Prolyte trussing designed by HSL to be tourable and clad with the EC-20. All elements  together weighed around 1.8 tonnes. It was suspended on five Liftket 1 tonne Kinesys motors which can run at up to 10 metres a minute with incredibly smooth operation for any effect. This performed several moves during the show.

The Pyramid was lifted by a standard 1 tonne Liftket 10 metres-a-minute Kinesys motor ….. which was hot-rodded to give some exceptionally speedy in / out movements, complete with all the rigorous safety ratios and components needed for people flying.

Teamwork

HSL’s already mentioned crew were joined by lighting techs Gary Rees and Ed Ilsley and video techs Ian Wood and Christian Lewis, the latter of whom was also overseeing and controlling the playback system.

Neil Trenell has worked with HSL on numerous occasions. He says, “I was really pleased to be doing so again. It’s been a good tour, great to work on, and something a bit different. HSL has been an excellent supplier as always – we have had everything we wanted and amazing service – always with a smile!”

Ends.

Date of issue : 23^rd August 2012.