The Central American and Caribbean Games are held every four years with athletes from the region competing in a variety of sports, some of which qualify them for the Pan American Games. The 2014 Games were staged in the newly refurbished Estadio Luis 'Pirata' Fuente in Veracruz where more than a million people watched approximately 5,700 participating athletes.
The opening ceremonies featured several different segments in which the event producers used a large amount of projection. "The main challenge was how to use projection as a cyc element with performers in front and light the performers from 450 feet away without eradicating the projections," Grill explains.
A 30ft high, three-tiered pyramid-shaped stage was the centrepiece of the opening ceremonies. The all-white structure, which featured three pools, acted as a platform for performances and a projection surface for images.
On the east side of the stadium about 400ft of the lower balcony rail was rimmed with 108 Clay Paky Sharpys and 32 B-EYE K20s. Eight more K20s lined two of the stage's pools and 18 Sharpys lined the other.
"We used the Sharpys not only for beam, canopy and texture effects but also to light the acrobatic dancers flying through the air," says David Grill. "The Sharpys were the only lights small enough and competent enough to capture things far away: We could side light the acrobats, who represented the heart and soul of the world, like a dance presentation from 200 feet away. We could really have the Sharpys concentrated, focused and bright without a lot of overshoot."
Grill deployed the versatile B-EYE K20s in many different ways. "We used them as task lights, to light people, for aerial effects and for the face of the camera. We used the rotators for scenic texture projected onto various surfaces. They were better and more interesting than gobos. With the availability of the moving front face we could layer a color over a color. And the B-EYEs consumed virtually no power."
Grill and his team also lit the Games' closing ceremonies, which took the more conventional form of a rock concert. Montreal-based Solotech provided the gear.
Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky area manager for North and Latin America, added, "This was an amazing looking show and we were proud to have been a part of it. Congratulations to Mr. Grill for such a great design."
(Jim Evans)
