Resolution X took delivery of the first Martin MAC Vipers in Australia and these new units didn’t spend long in their new warehouse before making their debut appearance at the AFL Footy Show Grand Final Edition.
The show was broadcast live from Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena with an audience in the millions but this didn’t stop lighting designer Rohan Thornton from debuting a product he’d never used before.
“I knew it wouldn’t be a risk as Martin is famous for their reliability and the people at Res X would have tested them thoroughly,” he added. “In fact on the night they were the only fixture we didn’t have a problem with! The only risk was that I only had twenty-four Vipers and I used all of them with no spare but I wasn’t let down.”
Rohan had seen the MAC Viper at the Entech tradeshow and heard how it was going to be the replacement for the MAC2000 so he was very interested to see how it would perform.
“All these new lights come out with flashy bits but the workhorses are the backbone of the industry and I wanted to have a play with what could potentially be the next workhorse,” he remarked. “I wasn’t disappointed! I found them to be excellent; optically they were very, very good, the choice of lamp is excellent, the colour temperature was very consistent, the gobos are good as is the zoom range – in fact there was no feature I didn’t like. I loved everything about them.”
The Vipers were positioned on moving trusses upstage from where they were Rohan’s primary profile light and source light on the stage from behind.
“Optically and from an intensity point of view they cut through all the other fixtures that I was using so they had pride of place,” he added.
Also over the stage were Martin MAC700 profiles and washes and twenty-four MAC TW1 fixtures which Rohan adores.
“I love them, always have and always will!” he said. “I’ve used them on just about everything I’ve done. I like to add a bit of tungsten into the arc profile spots – it’s a nice differential colour temperature.”
On the vertical trusses rear of stage were thirty-four Martin MAC Auras which Rohan was curious to use on a televised show.
“I think most TV lighting folk don’t like the pixel look of LED moving lights but the idea of having a soft fresnel lens and being able to colour separately looked promising so I was keen to give the Auras a good go on a TV show,” commented Rohan. “They were absolutely sensational and are my LED fixture of choice from now on! Apart from being a damn good fixture with a good beam, colours and everything like that, physically on the set they look much more like a light than a bunch of moving dots.”
Ninety-six Martin MAC301 LED fixtures were used around the arena to light the audience and they were so successful, for the first time Rohan did not have to use any conventional lights.
Photos: Ben Claydon
www.resolutionx.com.au
www.showtech.com.au
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