Lighting designer Jussi Kallioinen used 34 of Martin's new 700W fixtures for the Opening Ceremony on 6 August, alongside a host of other Martin equipment including loads of MAC 2000s (135 Wash, 68 Profiles and two Performance fixtures), eight MAC 600 washlights, 54 Atomic strobes (24 with Atomic Colors) and 24 Jem ZR33 Hi Mass foggers. Other fixtures used by Kallioinen included Studio Due City Colors, ETC Source Four profiles, and Lycian and Strong Gladiator followspots, while control was looked after by a pair of Wholehogs. All the Martin gear was supplied by Eastway Sound & Lighting of Helsinki through Lightinen Ltd - Martin Scandinavia's sole distributor in Finland.
Kallioinen, lighting designer at Eastway, said: "Lighting was a huge element of the show. We used the MACs for big washes on the field, for animation effects and for some aerial effects. The MAC 700 performed very well - it's a very good light and we had no problems with it or any of the MACs. I'm also using the 700 on the Finnish Millionaire TV show, and it has worked very well on that too. For the World Track and Field Opening Ceremony we used 34 of them and positioned them on truss pillars on one side of the stadium. The animation system is very nice and the output is almost as good as the MAC 2000 Profile. It has a lot of power."
Creating rigging for the lights proved to be a problem because of the age of the stadium, which was built for the 1952 Olympic Games. "Stadium officials kept saying that we couldn't do things," says Kallioinen. "So the size of the MAC 700 was important. Because of the stadium roof being so low, it was hard to find places for fixtures, but we managed."
"It rained for a week leading up to the event and rained at the Opening Ceremony which was hell for the load-in but good for visuals and the light beams. There were eight truss pillars and on each we placed three MAC 700s and a MAC 2000 Wash [all MAC 2000 Washes were equipped with PC lenses]. The MAC 2000 Profiles we had on truss on the field and on the roof. The same for the MAC 2000 Wash, although we placed some of those on the edge of the field as well. The fixtures held up well, despite the weather. The Martin technician that was on hand had very little to do."
Eastway's sales director Olli-Pekka Kallio commented on the 700s. "These were the first MAC 700s used in Europe and we had no problems with them whatsoever." He described it as "a light with great output . . . a good combination of power and graphics."
The MAC 700 is already being specified for shows around the world including Lennon on Broadway and the forthcoming Paul McCartney tour.
