The show was staged at the National Tennis Centre in Bratislava in front of a live audience of 4,000, and broadcast live on Saturday night by Joj (pronounced 'yoy') - Slovakia's largest private TV channel. It attracted an audience of up to four million (80% of the country's population) making it one of the highest profile media events on the Slovakian TV calendar.
Kubanka has designed the show's lighting for the last eight years, and Q-99 has provided lighting and sound for the same duration. Each year the visuals have evolved in complexity and in terms of technology, and Kubanka explains that it's a collaborative effort between himself, lighting cameraman Milan Dostal, director Jiri Adamec - both from the neighbouring Czech Republic - and scenic designer Michal Klang. "Michal's sets are always a challenge to light," says Kubanka. This was no exception, 40m wide and constructed from a series of white Lexan and Plexiglass cubes, complete with strategically located, coloured neon 'flashes'. While some areas of it took light extremely well, in other places, light would refract at unpredictable angles, so he was careful to avoid unwanted reflections entering the cameras.
As always with these shows, the task was also to make it look good for the live audience as well as the camera, and to ensure that the contestants looked consistently good throughout, with even lighting right across the stage - all of which was used. The show's 'sections' - including the traditional beauty pageant elements like the swimsuit and evening wear parades, as well as a singing/dancing and 'other' performance section in which the contestants demonstrated how their talents went beyond their looks - each needed its own distinct lighting look and feel. In addition to this, three of the country's top pop acts performed in the ad breaks, so the stage also had to be lit for them too.
It was essential I had a dynamic selection of moving lights to choose from, and that they were placed in a variety of different places and at different angles," says Kubanka. His design began with Robe's ColorWash 1200E and ColorSpot 1200 ATs - in quantities of 10 and 26 respectively - rigged in key overhead and floor positions. Then he filled in with 10 ColorWash 575 XTs and 20 Scan 575 XTs, dotted about the overhead trusses.
Q-99 has invested heavily in Robe moving lights over the last two years, and now has over 200 fixtures - the largest quantity of any rental company in Slovakia. "Robe is an excellent brand from our perspective" says Q-99's Marek Adamik "There's a good section of fixtures for all types of application, they are extremely reliable. We get great service from Czech distributors KVS, and also from Robe themselves.
Kubanka operated all the moving lights for Miss Universe Slovakia himself, using a Grand MA console - the desk of choice. The conventionals - which included a mix of Pars, ACLs, profiles, ARRI 1, 2 and 5K fresnels, Griven Kolorados and Rainbow colour scrollers, plus all the set neons - were controlled by Josef Arpa, using an MA LightCommander desk. He adds that he's now using fewer fixtures to light the show than in previous years, but using the latest moving lights, the imaginative scope has vastly increased.
The broadcast show also featured some pre-recorded play-in spots, completed in the afternoon, so ensuring continuity in lighting between them and the live footage was also vital. Here Kubanka found the ColorWash and Spot 1200's colour correction flags invaluable, dropping them in to correct the white to a camera-friendly hue. He adds that the low noise factors of the fixtures are also essential for live TV of this type, with include interview slots as w
