The annual Grand Final NRL Footy Show was once again held at Sydney’s Qantas Credit Union Arena with lighting designed by Channel 9’s Andrew Veitch and lighting direction conducted by Paul Collison and Graham Anderson. During the show Andrew ran all of the white light, Graham called the follow spots and wrangled the crew whilst Paul ran the moving lights. Video content was run by Adam Crawford.
This year the lighting team had to be prepared for a sudden departure by Paul Collison as his first child was due to be born. Fortunately, little Charlotte until just after the show to make her entrance.
The lighting rig was dominated by Martin and Clay Paky product with Paul finally getting to use the Clay Paky Mythos in a live environment.
“I am now in love with the Mythos, they are awesome,” he stated. “They are so versatile and flexible, I’d use them on just about any show. Being able to do a parallel beam one second and then the next being able to do a wide angle profile, is incredible. Clay Paky has done an exceptional job with the Mythos.”
As well as thirty-two Clay Paky Mythos, there were all sorts of different and wonderful lights including fifty-two Martin MAC Viper Profiles just doing their thing as a good solid work horse.
Fifty Martin MAC Quantum Wash were chosen for key lighting and audience wash with Paul describing their colour rendering as incredible.
“To think that we are now mixing tungsten light sources and LED light sources to key light people is something I thought that we’d never see let alone from a fixture that is as flexible as a MAC Quantum,” he said. “As well as great effects it’s a great bright wash light with plenty of grunt. The fact that we could tune it to match the tungsten key light as fill light was pretty impressive.”
Heaps of Martin MAC101’s were located around the audience and according to Paul, they were so much better than the standard PAR can wash they used to do from the back of the audience. This year, eighteen Clay Paky Stormy Strobes joined the MAC101’s adding a beautiful little bit of sparkle around the audience for the player’s review and Delta Goodrem’s performance.
“On the floor of the stage we had some of the thirty-four Clay Paky Sharpy and twenty Martin MAC Aura XB,” added Paul. “The MAC Aura XB’s are particularly impressive; when you think about the fire power we had with Mythos, Sharpys, and Quantum Washes, the Aura XB’s sat within that mix beautifully.
“We also had six Martin Quantum Profiles forming part of the walk out for the head of the show and for Delta’s number. They’re an incredible fixture too, again with the fire power we already had the fact that they cut it so admirably proves that this LED path we’re rushing down now is a worthwhile one.”
Thirty-two Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE 20 also lit the audience successfully, replacing the 1200 watt wash fixtures used on previous shows. A handful of Clay Paky Alpha HPE 700 Profiles were sprinkled around the stage to fill in any holes that may be left after the plethora of other lights had been distributed. A dozen Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700 were located in the audience to fill out some of the more oblique camera shots.
For the Delta Goodrem performance, a dozen Martin Rush MH3 Beam were behind the B-stage and Paul described them as really bright and punchy.
“Martin may have done a good job of marketing the RUSH fixtures as a lower grade light but they are successfully making their way into the professional sector,” he added. “Hey, if it’s good enough for Eurovision, it’s good enough for the Footy Show!”
On the B-Stage were twenty ShowPro PixPads and some Sharpys whilst ShowPro Truss Mates, LED Cans, and Sunstrips were also integrated into the design.
Over the audience trusses were twenty Martin LC Panels to create a bit more atmosphere in some of the reverse shots.
“The LC Panels did a really good job,” remarked Paul. “They’ve been around for a while but are still very useful. Since their P3 upgrades, the LC Panels are much easier to use and integrate into a system like the one we had.”
All of the video was done by coolux Pandora’s Box controlled from a MA Lighting network. Four MA2 light consoles were used; video, moving lights, white light and a spare floor console.
“Each year you try some new fixtures and new ideas, and this year for me the stand out was using MAC Quantum Washes as key lights and mixing them with tungsten sources,” concluded Paul. “I don’t think I personally would have had the guts to try it as Veitchy did, but at the end of the day they did an absolutely spectacular job of emulating a tungsten wash light and proved we can integrate even more LED into a lighting design. Where it used to be relegated to frou-frou and background light, and people would scoff at lighting a face with an LED source, we’ve proved that you can do that now. Not only do it but integrate it with traditional tungsten sources as well.”
Lighting supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems.
Photos: Nicolas Versluis
