Murphy and The Moving Light Company were working alongside pyrotechnic specialists Rocket Pyro, who were providing fireworks for the night. Murphy's challenge was not just to light Bath's famous Royal Crescent, but to co-ordinate the lighting with the fireworks in the sky above. To achieve this, he opted to use The Moving Light Company's StudioDue CityColor colour-changing exterior floodlights, which have proved hugely popular on all manner of projects since being added to the company's rental stock in 2002.
"Originally the plan was to use the CityColors just to light the central block of the Crescent, then use MAC 2000s to project onto the outer sections," Murphy explains. "However, during the focus we just kept pulling the units back and back until we ended up lighting the whole of the Crescent with just six CityColors - these still being bright enough because we were using MLC's 2500W units, rather than the standard 1800W unit."
The show was then programmed using a Flying Pig WholeHog II console, with an Artistic Licence Micro-Scope providing back-up. "All of the colour fades across the face of the royal crescent were co-ordinated to the firework display and fired from a golf course a couple of miles away," Alex Murphy explains. "I'd love to tell you it all used high-tech time-code, but in fact we were given a radio signal which started the clocks followed by pyro and lx!"
(Ruth Rossington)
