Light contractor Sound D-Light srl performed the three installations. Pat Henry, lighting designer for the event, used a huge number of SGM fixtures including the Genio Mobile, Palco 3, Ribalta, Synthesis Spot 700, Pilot 2000 and Pilot 3000.
Henry, supported by Luca Domenicucci and Paolo Marcuzzi of Sound D-Light srl as lighting operators, stated: "We lit the big Christmas tree inside Aula Paolo VI, the back of the same Hall where the huge bronze statue the Resurrection is and the Christmas crib placed outside in St. Peter's Square. I essentially used Ribalta, Palco 3 and Genio fixtures to create the different white and colour hues - mainly violet and blue - both for the backgrounds and to give value to details; this task was performed simply by choosing the right interchangeable optics from time to time."
"We managed to obtain a good scenic result which brought out the bronze statue of the Resurrection right behind the Pope. For this purpose, I used 5 Ribalta with 30° asymmetric lenses placed on the back as backlights, 1 Genio Mobile with 8° lens inside the sculpture itself, 4 Palco 3 with 25° lenses for cuts and to light the back, and 2 Ribalta with elliptical lenses and 2 with asymmetric lenses for the details on Jesus. The effect was so great that I heard that the Vatican asked to make the installation permanent!
For the large Christmas tree, Henry used 4 Ribalta with 8° lenses aimed at the highest part of the branches and 5 Palco 3 with 25° lens to light the low portion of the trunk. For the Christmas crib, placed in St. Peter's Square, Genio Mobile fixtures with 8° lenses were used both for "diffuse" illumination and for the details of the sculptures. 4 Synthesis Spot 700 with gobos were used to light the background. "The projectors were controlled by a SGM Pilot 3000 desk, to control the fixtures dedicated to the illumination of the sculpture, the tree and the crib..." Henry adds.
As far as the Christmas crib is concerned, Sound D-Light's Domenicucci says: "All the cabling passed under the crib stage, in such events a clean stage and a flawless installation are paramount ...We chose Pilot 2000s because, in case of voltage drop, it restarts without the need of a direct intervention. We had no guarantee of continuous technical assistance, so it was rather important to have every unit set in automatic mode..."
Luca continues: "Both signal and current cabling were placed on the ground. A dmx line served the bronze sculpture, another line served the background (behind the crib), the Christmas crib and the Christmas tree. In this case, the system was turned on and off by Vatican staff members."
(Claire Beeson)
