The BB's were selected by the London event's lighting designers Patrick Woodroffe (responsible for the stage/show lighting) and Mark Kenyon (responsible for the TV and BBC's lighting requirements), and supplied by lighting contractor PRG London - along with all the other equipment.
Lighting for the Live Earth concerts challenged its designers to make the rig as energy-efficient as possible, so they used as many high output, low-energy lighting fixtures as possible - including LED and HMI sources. (Tungsten elements were reduced to an absolute minimum).
Ahead of the event, PRG's project director Carol Croft, approached a series of LED lighting manufacturers including i-Pix and asked them to present their technology at a demo for Woodroffe and Kenyon to assess first hand. From there they chose which fixtures to use - and where to position them on the rig.
Each BB Washlight features four dismountable 2ft battens fitted with four RGB cells each using a custom RGB LED and a novel optical arrangement to deliver a blended source of exceptionally high power.
Woodroffe and Kenyon also chose 86 of i-Pix' popular Satellites LED fixtures for the show, which were rigged on horizontal trusses and vertical side trusses framing the proscenium arch. The BB and Satellite units were run from a Catalyst system via a WholeHog II lighting console operated for the show by Nigel Catmur and Will Charles.
I-Pix Chris Ewington says: "It was a great honour to work on this show with Patrick, Mark and PRG. As a company, we are thoroughly committed to all the values and goals of the Live Earth campaign and all our products, including the BBs and Satellites have been developed with excellent green credentials at the forefront of their spec."
Metallica, one of the acts in the London line up, also played their own show at Wembley Stadium the following day, again using equipment supplied by PRG that included the BB's which were left in from Live Earth.
(Jim Evans)
