MELBOURNE, Australia – Clifton Productions supplied Robe moving lights, Anolis LED fixtures and other gear for this year's Brownlow Medal Count, staged at the Palladium Ballroom in Melbourne's Crown Casino complex. More than 1,000 top sports figures attended the televised event. Mal Nichols of Mal Nichols and Associates served as the event's art director. "The design elements had to be three dimensional to allow lighting and texturing to be a back drop to the talent," Nichols said. "So the lighting was required to be flexible and allow for subtle changes within the presentation incorporating the background."
In the Atrium of the Crown Casino, the crew used 10 Robe REDWash 3â—Â192s, 8 Robe ColorWash 1200 ATs and 4 Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs to highlight the general area and guests as they walked the red carpet.
"This year's telecast was a great success for Channel 7 at the end of a huge year in AFL Broadcast," said Rob Coia, the event's LD. "It was the first time that I had used the new Robe REDWash LED fixtures that Clifton Productions now have as part of their inventory. I was very impressed with the performance, I used the REDWashes to dress the walls and columns in the Atrium for the red carpet arrivals, to provide colour and shape for the background surfaces which appeared in most of the camera shots."
He added that the fixtures worked "especially well" in the Atrium, adding that while the crew usually experiences difficulties getting the dark walls in this area to read on camera, this year it was the "best look so far" in terms of bright color.
Richard Grenfell, who knew the red carpet space very well, programmed the lighting and created a great balance between people's faces and the walls. "The REDWashes have an incredible light output, as well as a vast array of colors, from full chroma saturation through to more subtle pastels," said Coia, concluding, "I found it a great tool for the task, particularly when available power is limited."
In the main Palladium room, which was used for the dinner, the crew set up Robe moving for ambient room looks and for set and stage dressing. The fixture counts included 48 Robe ColorWash 700E ATs, 44 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, four Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs and another 18 x REDWash 3â—Â192 fixtures.
"We are really happy that the REDWashes have been added to our stock and the feedback we are getting from clients is amazing," said Clifton system tech Aaron Humber. The gear met the challenge of coverage across the large area, needed for the many wide camera shots during the broadcast.
Two grandMA full size consoles, operated by Alex Saad and Andy Edis, controlled the lighting. A third "house" grandMA was run by Andrew Killengray, hooked into the 140 scanners used as table pin spots and all the house "architectural" LED fixtures.
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