DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Mandylights LDs Richard Neville and Alex Grierson spent a month in Dubai as lighting designers for Dubai’s New Year’s Eve celebrations. The 25-minute show took place around the center of Dubai in front of the Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building. Using some 350 intelligent fixtures, the pair illuminated the Burj, lake and surrounding precinct which played host to 15 individual performer stages and a massive 210-meter (689 ft) long seamless projection screen.
More details from Mandylights (http://www.mandylights.com):
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Mandylights lighting designers Richard Neville and Alex Grierson spent a month in Dubai as lighting designers for Dubai’sNew Year’s Eve celebrations. The 25-minute show took place around the center of Dubai in front of the Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building. Using some 350 intelligent fixtures, the pair illuminated the Burj, lake and surrounding precinct which played host to 15 individual performer stages and a massive 210-meter long seamless projection screen.
The show’s narrative was based on the important natural and cultural elements of the world and how they all come together. The energy of the elements travel across the world to finally reach their destination at Dubai – the place where people come together in celebration of friendship and cultural understanding. As the energy arrives it erupts in a show of water, fire, light and sound.
The show was first performed on New Year’s Eve before the midnight fireworks for a site wide audience of 1.7 million people and accompanied live by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The show then played twice nightly throughout January for the tens of thousands of daily visitors to the new heart of Dubai.
Working on the project for almost six months, Mandylights was thrilled to be a part of the international creative team that put the immersive show together. With only four dress rehearsals before the New Year’s Eve show, the hundreds of lights, flame projectors, 79 performers and thousands of programmed water fountains all came together perfectly for a broadcast audience estimated at more than 2 billion people. The show was also broadcast live on YouTube around the world.
Lighting was fully visualized and programmed in Australia at Mandylights’ Sydney studio and in a temporary facility in the United Arab Emirates before the two-week long installation of fixtures spread around the site. Unique challenges faced by the team included lighting the Burj Khalifa in its entirety from the ground with the team turning to Clay Paky Sharpys and Falcon Beams to wash the building with color and create a range of special effects that had not been seen before on the 826m high tower.
With fixtures located so close to the Dubai Fountain, custom made waterproof housings were constructed for the Auras and Alpha Beam fixtures, and wireless DMX was used extensively around the site to reach the various lake stages spread around the enormous man-made lake.
Mandylights is a Sydney-based lighting and technical design firm which operates around the world.
