The 2015 Royal Queensland Show affectionately known as Ekka is Brisbane’s largest cultural festival, and an annual event held at the Brisbane Showgrounds. For the third year in a row Fusion Entertainment has lit the main arena at the Ekka. In preparation for this year’s event Paul Walton, managing director of Fusion Entertainment, decided to invest in some hard core lighting gear purchasing twelve Clay Paky Mythos and twenty-four Clay Paky Sharpys.
With the arena’s grandstand being quite old, hanging lights can be a problem so this year Paul decided to build twelve vertical trusses placed in the first seating row of the arena.
“In previous shows the lights had been hung off of the four light towers but we had weight problems with them,” remarked Paul. “With this show, being more of a lighting effect show rather than just lighting, we needed another option. Each truss held two Sharpys, a Mythos and a ShowPro EX36 outdoor LED flood.”
Paul has found that many of the events he have been doing lately are outdoors so he was sold on the punch of the Sharpys and the beam effects that they offer. He commented that they work really well and compliment the Mythos, giving a good definition of beams traveling through the air and smoke.
“The Mythos have the added benefit of being extremely versatile and will also be great for the stage shows and concerts that we do,” said Paul. “In fact the Mythos is the perfect choice for such a wide range of applications. You can make use of the beam mode for shows such as the Ekka as they have enough punch to get through anything. Their wide zoom range is great too.”
Paul reports that the Sharpys and Mythos performed fantastically and that everyone was commenting on them, particularly on their brightness.
“You can clearly see them through the pyro smoke and they add such a different element to the show,” he said.
Paul also decided to purchase twelve ShowPro EX36 outdoor LED floods for the prestigious event.
“They add a really nice colour wash to the arena as well as some eye candy. For example, during one part of the show the sports lighting has to be on for safety reasons and the EX36 colour wash really punches through adding that extra element.”
The evening show features monster trucks and quad bikes culminating in a fifteen minute spectacle where lasers, fireworks and lighting join together.
