KAVE Theatre Services of West Sussex, England recently supplied all lighting, sound, AV, set and crew requirements on a large scale production for a dance school client.
The show was choreographed around some of the most famous movie soundtracks in history with a set design brief to deliver something “unusual and exciting.”
KAVE Project Manager Dave Singleton created a dynamic lighting design utilizing the company’s staging products including 34 Martin MAC 600 and 16 MAC 700 moving heads along with assorted generic lamps. Singleton then placed a mixture of MAC III Profiles™, MAC 2000 Profiles™, Atomic 3000™strobes fitted with Atomic Colors™ scrollers, generic lamps, and other assorted moving and LED fixtures around the set and stage floor. At front of house he placed a mix of Martin MAC 575 Kryptons™ and MAC 250 Washes™. The visible set frontage was covered with Martin LC Series™ LED panels along with LED strips.
The end result was a visually stimulating and effective design. Singleton commented, “I designed the rig with the intention of being able to generate some very traditional looks common in lighting dance but also to supply the wow-factor when required. As the show was filmed, I really wanted to achieve looks that reflected the energy of the dance company both on and off camera. To give it the edge on film I specified a number of the fixtures in chrome.”
As the show revolved heavily around a movie theme there was a requirement for different types of media to be used throughout. Singleton specified three 3m x 2m screens made up of Martin LC Series™ LED panels, which were controlled by a Martin Maxedia™ media server. Singleton states, “The LC panels are without a doubt one of the easiest products I’ve ever used. They are incredibly bright, very easy to rig and an all-round joy to work with.”
KAVE only stocks Martin moving lights due to their reliability and fast servicing ability. “We had no issues with any fixtures throughout the week on site, but then I wouldn’t expect to,” Singleton says. “With only a short time in the venue before curtain up on the first show, the last thing I want to think about is having to swap out fixtures, and with over 100 on the show to not have a single failure is great.”
He adds, “I am extremely happy with the results of this show. The crew of 12 worked effortlessly through a very tight load in time of just one day. The show looked and sounded fantastic, which is exactly what we always set out to achieve.”
Content for the show was created by Ben Lawrence of BCL Technical Ltd. The AV system was operated by KAVE’s Chris Childs and show was production managed by freelancer Steve Tyrrell.
The whole rig was programmed and operated by freelance LD Simon Horn. A complex control system using Artnet and wireless DMX distributed all the data to the various points required. Singleton commented, “Simon deserves a lot of credit for having the whole show programmed and ready within the 3 day plotting window, especially looking as good as it did.”
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