SHANGHAI, China – For the second time in two years, China has hosted an epic global gathering. Among its other superlatives, the Shanghai World Expo, a $4 billion, six-month celebration of international culture, has been called the largest outdoor multimedia display in history and the biggest and most expensive party ever. The Expo helped promote Shanghai as one of the world's great cities by showcasing the latest technology in outdoor spectacular events, offering visitors lights, lasers, fountains, boats, music and fireworks along a 3.4km stretch of the Huangpu River in central Shanghai.
Clay Paky played a supporting role with more than 300 Alpha 1500 spotlights supplied through its Chinese partner ACE Professional Sound and Lighting.
David Atkins Enterprises handed production duties and the outdoor lighting was designed by Bob Dickinson and Ted Wells. Paul Collison was project lighting manager and Sha Xiao Lan was lighting designer for the indoor show.
The outdoor performance during the opening ceremonies spanned both sides of the 300-meter-wide Huangpu River, extending along a 2.7km stretch of the river – an area that was about as large as 1,000 football fields.
Clay Paky was chosen by both the design team and the Shanghai Expo Large Scale Performance Management Group to serve as the only non-Chinese brand of lighting to be represented at the Expo opening ceremonies.
Director of ACE, Bingo Tso said, "It was a collective and unanimous decision. The Alpha Wash 1500 Long Throw proved to be the only tool that could project a wash from one side of the river to the other."
Searchlights lined both sides of the river at 12m intervals, and the Clay Paky Alphas were used for the performance area in front of the VIP areas.
An indoor event designed by LD Sha Xiao Lan, who previously designed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, preceded the outdoor component of the show.
The indoor show was led by an array of Alpha Profile 1500 and Alpha Beam 1500 fixtures that lit the cultural and protocol segments for the broadcast. The guests included 20 different heads of state including them China's president, Hu Jintao.
For more information, please visit www.claypaky.it.
