Lighting designer is Roy Bennett who specified a large Mac rig that includes Mac 700 profiles, Mac 2000 profiles and Mac 2000 washes, more than 150 Mac units in all, supplied by Upstaging, Inc.
Country's hottest couple is playing in-the-round, a concert that lasts nearly three hours and features the two singers - who carry separate bands - performing on their own and together. The stage features a round central platform with four protruding wings. Above hangs the rig of automated and conventional luminaires. "There is a lot of gear on this show," Roy exclaims. "You could literally run across the top of the grid and it would be hard to fall through!
"But because the show is in-the-round the whole idea is to make the atmosphere intimate. Even though there are 12-14,000 people the idea is to include them as a part of the show as well as a spectator. Besides the stage lighting we use the Macs as background lighting, because when you play in-the-round the people on the other side of the room are actually your background so we get colour on them."
Roy uses some 90 Mac 700 profiles on the show, located both in the rig and on the floor. He says: "The entire floor is LED video so when you have that amount of ambient lighting coming off you have quite a bit of competition and you need something that will cut through that. The 700 profile's output and the way it runs allows me to get what I need out of it. They're awesome lights for their size."
Filling out the Mac rig are 22 Mac 2000 profiles and 40 Mac 2000 wash luminaires.
(Chris Henry)
