Blackburn-based HSL is enjoying a hectic springtime in the TV world, supplying lighting kit to several different productions, and offering a wide range of new equipment including the SoftLED drape, Color Kinetics' LED fixtures and various moving lights.

HSL supplied over 40 Robe moving lights for the final of the third series of Wawffactor (the Welsh edition of Pop Idol), recorded at the Media Centre in Cardiff by Studio 1 for ITV, and broadcast live on S4C in Welsh. Lighting designer Martyn Rourke  incorporated 20 Robe ColorSpot and 20 ColorWash 1200 fixtures into his show which also used fixtures from the studio’s in house rig. The intelligent lights were operated by Svend Pedersen who has also recently worked with HSL on ITV’s massive hit show,  "Dancing On Ice".

For the final of the Carling Cup at Millennium Stadium, HSL supplied six high resolution SoftLED cloths for the post match celebrations to production company Event 360. Instead of being hung in the conventional way, the SoftLED was rolled out on the pitch at the end of the match! HSL's brief was to deploy the 10m x 15m of SoftLED in under 5 minutes in keeping with the strict time frames given by the FA and Sky Sports. The HSL crew led by Graeme Ramsdale and a team of 14 locals completed the task in under 3 minutes, leaving plenty of time for the additional lighting  - supplied by Neg Earth - to be set up and the stage to be carried out from the Dragons mouth tunnel located down at the far corner. HSL also created the graphics that played on the drape and formatted them on to a DVD for playback. Because either team could win, HSL had to supply two versions of the graphic one bearing the Manchester United logo on the other with Wigan.

For the BBC’s "Just the Two of US", HSL supplied and rigged over 120 Color Kinetics iColor Tiles around the studio for the popular show, where teams of celebrities and pop stars sing it out to win accompanied by a live band in TC1 at the BBC TV Centre in Wood Lane, West London. Lighting designer was Mark Kenyon and Set Designer Patrick Doherty

Popular Saturday night ITV games show "Family Fortunes" recently took on a new look which included a section of high res SoftLED drape from HSL, used as the backing to one of the stage entrances. This was specified by LD Dave Davey. For the current series of the 'Price is Right' recorded at Granada TV in Manchester, HSL is also supplying 72 JTE PixelPAR 90s, 14 Martin Mac 2000 Wash lights, 30 JTE Pixel Lines and 130 Pulsar Chroma strips

For Dance Fever, being recorded at TC1 at the BBC Television Centre, HSL is supplying LD Mark Kenyon and set designer Chris Webster with 140 ColorKinetics iColour Tiles.

ITV's X-Factor spin-off - 'Battle Of The Celebrities' - is taking place at  Fountain Studio's, and HSL has once again supplied large quantities of LED products, including 130 JTE Pixelines, 180 CK Colour Tiles, 100 Pulsar Chroma Strips and 200 metres of CK's new iColor Flex SLX - a larger-node and higher-intensity version of the groundbreaking iColor Flex SL. This is a multi-purpose, LED-based strand that generates fabulous effects. LD is Dave Davey and set designer is Christopher George – both of whom HSL has worked with on numerous other projects.

Soccer Aid's LD Tom Kinane is working with set designer Patrick Doherty at the London Studios. This ITV show is aimed at raising funds for UNICEF and is presented by Ant & Dec, broadcasting throughout the World Cup period. It sees the preparation of a team of World Cup legends and top celebrities for an England v The Rest of The World fundraising match. HSL is providing 130 Pixel Lines, 24 x PixelPAR 90s and 250 Chroma Strips.

HSL is also delivering a full lighting production package for Martyn Rourke on the Urdd Eisteddfod Festival. Rourke is using over 100 conventional sources, Avolites Art2000 dimmers and a WholeHog console, plus  14 x Robe 1200 ColorSpot E ATs, 90 Chroma Strip LED battens and all cabling and distro. The New HSL 'Super' ground support system, designed and built by Litec, is in action here as well - using QL52 tower truss and Litec 76 truss, and spanning over 22 Metres with high load capacity.

As if all this is not enough ....HSL also continues to supply all the intelligent lighting to London-based broadcast lighting company, Film and TV Services for the boxing on both Sky Sport and ITV1. The system consists of over 20 Robe 1200 ColorSpot 1200AT moving lights.

Date of issue: May 2006