The Live! Technologies team, including Michael Farrell, business development and marketing executive, and Michael Hesmond, lighting programmer, deployed a rig of over 100 Martin lights including 12 Viper Performances, 12 Viper Profiles, six MAC III Performances, 36 MAC Auras, 22 MAC 101s, 12 RUSH MH3 Beams, four Atomic 3000 DMX strobes, 60 EC-10 video panels and one P3-200 Video Processor/Scaler.
The Arnold Sports Festival 2014 took place in Columbus, Ohio in early March, and featured over 800 exhibitors showcasing the latest sports equipment, apparel and nutritional products. The main stage was the centre for non-stop entertainment and competitions, featuring premier body building athletes including Zydrunas Savicakas, Dimitar, Michael Burke and of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"Everything worked out extremely well," Farrell mentioned. "We started months in advance with the set design and did roughly 100 hours of pre-programming for the show. Other than that, the setup took two days and it was straightforward."
For both Farrell and Hesmond, it was their first time using the P3-200 Controller, RUSH MH3 Beam lights and Viper Performances. "We used all the moving lights for our stage wash and video lighting, all the Auras for backlight and used the Viper fixtures for the front stage lighting," Farrell stated. "The Viper is a great fixture to use. It's nice and bright and has a great colour temperature."
"The video aspect was somewhat new to us, but the lighting system was very easy to use, which gave us great confidence that it would perform as we envisioned," Farrell added. "The RUSH MH3 Beams are really awesome, they are super bright and punch right through everything. We were really impressed! The Vipers have great colour temperature as well. We didn't have to do much correction with the LED's to get it perfect, it was a nice surprise.
"The ultimate measure was seeing the audience's response when the athletes came out and hit the stage," Farrell explained. "They were rock stars up there with a bunch of raving fans screaming. The lighting rig really sold the power of these athletes and made it worth every dollar the audience paid for tickets. It will be tough to outdo ourselves next year."
In addition to Martin, Live! Technologies deployed JBL Professional VRX and PRX loudspeakers along with Crown's amplifiers. "We appreciate working with Martin and all the Harman brands and look forward to next year's show being brighter and even more successful than this years," Farrell summed up. "This rig is so awesome it should be used for everything."
(Jim Evans)
