The Crown Christmas Spectacular has been part of the Resolution X calendar for 7 years. The current configuration which has been an evolving project since in 2007, sits proudly in the Crown Casino Atrium, at the foot of the grand stair case.
The main part of the job consists of a canopy of 396 x Pro Shop LED Tubes, of which it takes two solid nights to install. The first night is taken up rigging the Pro Shop LED Tubes lines and putting the control system in place, it is not until the second night that it is possible to patch and power up the canopy.
The Pro Shop LED Tubes are attached to 96 separate lines which are strung between a 3m circle and a massive 18m truss circle, forming a canopy of light, which ties together the full installation.
The full lighting rig is designed and programmed by Richard Grenfell. The grandMA with its Pixel mapping software is used to program the LED canopy, with the show later being transferred to an MA Ultra Light, with cues triggered via time code. Each tube runs in 4 bank/12 channel mode. In total the canopy uses 4752 Channels, spread over 12 universes of DMX. Each of the 96 Pro Shop LED Tube lines has its own DMX extension. Upstairs the system consists of 12x DMX Splitters running though 3x MA NSP’s then into a 24port switch, which allows a single Ethernet cable to be dropped to the control desk. The whole thing is powered up using only 2x 40amp distros. (It’s not often that your data rack towers above your power rack).
Siting directly under the canopy is a gigantic Christmas tree, which almost reaches to the height of the wave. The tree is highlighted with, 57 x 200mm LED spheres, 59 x 150mm LED spheres, and 30 x supercharged LED spheres, (a higher output LED), all run off 10 x LED drivers. The tree is also illuminated from the inside using 16 x Pro Shop Honeycomb 36’s. In comparison, the amount of data used for the tree is relatively small with only 1 universe of DMX being required. Like the Pro Shop LED Tube canopy the tree is installed over two nights, the first night being used for the erection of the tree, whilst the second night is spent inside the tree patching and powering up, it’s not the most comfortable of environments, especially when your working towards the tapered top, but its all worthwhile when all is up and running.
The third part of the installation is 6 x Christmas wreathes which are located in the West End foyer. Each wreathe has 20 x LED spheres which are controlled via an Enttec DMX Playback Show Recorder. The job took over 120hrs to install with a further 70hrs required for testing, checking and prepping the job, time well spent with over 662 fixtures, and only 3 fixtures failing once onsite.
The show will run until Sunday 2 January 2011 – every 30 minutes from 10.00am until midnight
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