The lighting and visuals designers were Michal Schmidt and Tomás Lecky, and the lighting equipment included 56 x Robe Robin Pointes, 22 x ColorSpot 700E ATs and 20 x ColorSpot 1200E ATs, the supply of which was supported by Slovakian rental company Showservice, based in Bratislava.
The production company was Jam Film 1999 s.r.o and the event was broadcast live on TV channel JOJ in Slovakia and Prima in the Czech Republic. Over 1000 X-Factor fans enjoyed the action live in the arena.
Schmidt & Lecky worked closely with set designer Jaroslav Holota from Ungroup s.r.o. to create the stage environment and the lighting design which had to be adaptable enough to deal with all the different styles and genres of music and performance.
Being the first X-Factor in the Czech and Slovak Republics since 2011, the pressure was on for the production for the final in particular to make a big impact and WOW everyone watching on TV and live.
This is where the Pointes came into their own, being a multi-purpose fixture that can be used as beam, spot, wash or effects fixture - all with equal quality and dynamics.
The stage set featured around 500sq.m of LED screen - 3, 9 and 16 mm pitch panels - including an opening / closing section upstage for stage entrances and exits, all of which shaped the space. Any lighting needed to be very bright to retain an impact with this amount of LED in close proximity.
All the trusses were painted black so they were hidden from view, giving the impression that the lightsources were floating in the air.
Special ladder trusses were fabricated for X-factor, with 51 of the Pointes positioned on these and the remaining five on the stage deck.
The ColorSpot 700s and 1200s were rigged on other over-stage trusses and at the front, where they were utilised primarily for key lighting and camera effects.
Michal Schmidt comments, "Using Pointes bring so many options for being imaginative and such a huge scope for creating memorable lighting 'moments'.
From a rental company perspective, Martin Kupco from Showservice elucidates that the Pointe is a perfect fixture because, due to its small size and light weight, is also ideal for using in smaller venues yet its output has all the punch needed for arenas.
(Jim Evans)
