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.
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.
The 10m wide 4.5m 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. All video content was produced by Clive Silver of CS Media.
HSL crew member Paddy Neilly operated the Kinesys system which used their Vector control software.
(Jim Evans)
