Ninety Robe moving lights - a mixture of ColorWash 1200E ATs and ColorWash 2500E ATs - were supplied at short notice by award winning UK rental company HSL to light the audience at Paul McCartney's concert in Independence Square, Kiev.
The show, the centrepiece of the recent Ukrainian Independence Day celebrations, was organized by Ukranian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk and was broadcast live across the country and to 5 giant screens set up in other major cities.
It was watched by 28 million people in the Ukraine alone, attended by leading politicians, celebrities and VIPs and an estimated audience of 350,000 members of the public who crammed into Independence Square and the surrounding streets. The gig was also hit by appalling weather, with 8 inches of torrential rain in 4 hours just prior to the show going up, turning the streets into rivers!
HSL was called on the Thursday 9 days ahead of the show by TV lighting director Tom Lesh, asking if they could amass the kit and get it out to Kiev for the show the following Saturday week.
Lesh was working with Jason Shepherd from Widescreen. Shepherd was technical director and DoP for the live TV broadcast directed by Paul Caslin, and responsible for all the broadcast’s technical output and the design and visual image of the TV show’s broadcast elements for JJ Stereo, the event's TV producers.
Lesh worked to Shepherd’s brief on the 'look' of the audience lighting and the two pooled ideas on technical choices of lighting and rigging for the audience, which also entailed adding to some of the stage lighting.
HSL's Mike Oates rose to the occasion, <cite>“We rounded up the Robe fixtures plus 48 Molefeys with scrollers and arranged a double driver schedule with Matthew Kibble Transport to get the kit there in time for Thursday midday”</cite>.
Oates and his crew of 5 flew out and then had just 2 days to rig the lights once on site which was a gruelling schedule.
Thirty-three of the ColorWash 1200E ATs were hung off the screen goal posts that were part of the staging structure and the front stage truss.
<cite>“These lights integrated well into the main stage rig to light the immediate audience of 15,000 people. They performed fantastically - bright, fast and good stable colours - which is extremely important for television - and kept on working …. Quite amazing considering the volume and intensity of rain!”</cite>
Twelve of the ColorWash 2500E ATs were positioned around the stage floor, used with the PC lenses to maximize the throw distance and illuminate the numerous historic statues, 7 major buildings and 250,000 square feet of Independence Square.
The 4 front-of-house delay towers each had six ColorWash 1200E ATs rigged off them, and the remaining 16 ColorWash 2500E ATs were spaced out between the delay towers and around the Square and on designated risers and structures to supply more specific building lighting.
<cite>“The 2.5k's were astounding”</cite> continues Shepherd, <cite>“Very bright for the size of lamp, the lenses were very precise, the speed of colour changing was good, and again they kept on working - except when a main trip blew because of a small swimming pool that had developed in the power distribution area! I am delighted with these new lamps and they will certainly be making an appearance on my shows in the future!”</cite>
Oates comments, <cite>“Everyone was impressed by the sheer brightness and throw of the fixtures, particularly those highlighting the buildings”</cite>.
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