The final was staged in the Helix Theatre at the City of Dublin University and the contemporary video-based visual design combined ideas from the creative team of lighting designer Andrew Leonard, set designer Molly Malloy and moving light and Catalyst programmer/operator Peter Canning. Sound was engineered by Paul Ashe-Brown using the house rig.
The show was produced by Screentime ShinAwiL, directed by Pat Cowap and broadcast live on RTE 1 where it consistently topped the Saturday night ratings. The 2008 final was won by Limerick singer Leanne Moore, who beat Wicklow singer Robyn Kavanagh on the results show, with the other finalist, Deidre Archbold from Cork voted off earlier in the evening.
High Resolution Lighting supplied 400 panels of Stealth screen, which were arranged as eight scenic panels around the stage, with five strips in the audience at the sides below the balconies and along the back of the stalls.The audience strips were used for branding and text, and for adding colour and movement for wide camera sweeps and reverse shots into the audience. There was also a larger section of Stealth ensconced below the specially constructed star-shaped Perspex stage floor.
Hi Res supplied 60 high definition Element Labs VersaTubes and 100 standard VersaTubes that were integrated as set and sub-floor (HD) pieces. VersaTubes were also used to make illuminated architectural strips linking from the sides of the stage to the show's flown star logo.
An upstage centre plasma wall, supplied by CAVS, was also a vital element of the video design, giving higher definition versions of the graphics and also used for inserts.
(Jim Evans)
