The glittering spectacle staged in the new 55,000 capacity National Stadium was broadcast live on national TV and across south East Asia, reaching an estimated audience of 600m, and saw the 28th SEA Games declared open in great style. It also featured the greatest number of Robe BMFLs - to date - used on a single event.
The BMFLs represent a massive investment made by Singapore based rental company Showtec Communications Pte Ltd., which purchased over 700 BMFL fixtures, most of them especially for the event, once Mac had confirmed his decision.
Mac was asked to design the high-profile event's lighting by creative director Beatrice Chia, with whom he has worked on previous large scale events including Singapore's National Day Parade. Mac also lit the Opening Ceremony of the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and has been involved in a plethora of innovative theatre work.
Three hundred and sixty BMFL Blades - the newest in the BMFL range - were rigged on eight trusses - 20 fixtures per truss - running along both sides of the pitch. The 100 x BMFL Spots were located on four trusses, two at each end of the stadium roof.
The total field-of-play size for the OC was 160m long by 95m wide, and Mac used the BMFL Blades as his key lighting for the whole floor area, and also for illuminating the hugely excited capacity audience who are seeing their country host the biennial event for the first time since 1993.
Designating a specific area for each BMFL blade to cover in its 'home' position gave the option of adding either very subtle or completely full-on lighting to suit the eye-catching projections.
"To have this flexibility and adaptability with the fixtures was incredible," he commented, adding that complimenting the field-of-play 'pictures' - a major visual focus throughout the two-hour show which included the Athlete's Parade - with lighting was an intricate task for him and his programming team working in close collaboration with Singapore based projection specialists, Hexogon.
The projections were delivered via 160 x Christie 20K Roadster machines positioned around the back of the upper ring of the stadium seats.
The 100 x BMFL Spots on the four end-trusses were primarily used to illuminate the multi-layered stage in the middle of the field-of-play, which featured much of the acting, story-telling and ceremonial action played out by a cast of several thousand.
Mac worked alongside a highly talented FOH team comprising assistant LD Marc Brandon Hor, lead programmer and show operator Michael Chan, programmer Muen Huang. Showtec crew chief William Lee co-ordinated a crew of up to 50 Showtec lighting technicians at the peak times during the OC cycle, and they were on site for the best part of two months in the run up. The show's Technical Director was Kenny Wong.
A grandMA2 system was used to control all the lighting which also included some other moving lights and LED pixels embedded in the stage. Separate lighting systems - also supplied by Showtec - were installed outside the stadium to light the final stages of the torch relay and the cauldron.
Robe's Josef Valchar attended the OC and commented, "The show looked incredible. I was extremely proud to see so many fixtures on one show and that Mac trusted a brand new light on such an important and grand scale event. It was also a great endorsement of the Robe brand for Showtec to make such a major investment in our products."
(Jim Evans)
