MELBOURNE, Australia – Forefront Productions and Phaseshift Productions provided visuals support for the Planetshakers religious youth conference, which drew attendees from around the world and was broadcast globally via GodTV from Melbourne's Hisense Arena. The stage was divided into four different zones: the back wall, the ceiling area raked at 45 degrees, and two side walls.
The stage's back wall was equipped with 30 Martin LC Series LED video panels with seven Martin MAC 700 Profiles and, above them, seven MAC 2000 profiles and seven MAC 2000 washes.
The ceiling area was rigged with 18 Martin LC Panels, 14 MAC 2000 Profiles and 14 MAC 2000 Wash fixtures. There were also 10 Martin Atomic strobes on both the ceiling and back wall.
Each side wall had six LC Panels and 10 MAC 700 Profiles and Washes. Six MAC 250 Profiles and four MAC 250 Wash with Beams were also on stage. The house lighting consisted of 16 MAC 700 Wash and eight MAC 600 Wash fixtures.
The creative process involved visuals that were meticulously synchronized to the conference's music program.
"Weeks out, we received the song demo tracks from Planetshakers and started building custom motion graphics for each song," said Rob Thorne of Forefront, the LD for the project. "Some songs saw video elements created for, and synched with, each individual kick drum and snare drum hit," resulting in up to 350 cues per song.
"All the motion graphics and song audio backing trax were run from our coolux media servers, locked via timecode to our grandMA lighting console, which was preprogrammed at our Newcastle office for every song, using a 3D render of the stage lighting setup," Thorne added.
In addition to the coolux Pro Manager media server four Pro Players, the system included a touchscreen widget that the drummers could use "to fire off the trax, motion graphics and lighting cues on demand."
Thorne credited the LED video panels for optimizing the visual results from all that prep work, calling the LC Series panels "a great product. I think most people are surprised at how good a 40mm pixel pitch looks from 30 meters away." He also noted that "the MAC 250s with the beam kit looked really great on camera; they really punch through, which is important when you're running alongside LC Panels.
"One thing I like to do with all my designs is layering, and that's another important part of the LC Panels, because you can have gear running behind them and shining through," Thorne noted. "Everyone does movers behind them, but I've also used plasma screens, LED PAR cans – in fact, a whole heap of different products."
Thorne also used eight of Chromlech's new Jarag lighting fixtures, crediting them for their brightness, ease of use and pixel pitch.
"We actually didn't let the client know we were getting the Jarags, as we wanted to surprise them," Thorne said. "They were super happy with them and loved the look. For me, it gave me yet another layer and added more depth to the stage."
After six weeks' preparation with 3D lighting programming and video content creation, the whole production setup needed to be set up within Hisense arena in a single day.
"Our sleep-deprived team did an amazing job, and the result was stunning," said Thorne. Phaseshift's Troy Brown served as production manager and worked with Jeremy Nolan, Phaseshift's senior systems tech, to ensure that the gig flowed smoothly and that the load-in and load-out were trouble-free.
Along with the grandMA full size console, the grandMA ultra-lite backup console, the coolux Pro Manager and four coolux Pro Players used for control, the rig included 21 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles, 21 MAC 2000 Wash fixtures, 19 MAC 700 Profiles, 34 MAC 700 Wash fixtures, eight MAC 600 Wash fixtures, six MAC 250 Profiles, four MAC 250 Wash fixtures with beam kits, 60 Martin LC Series LED video panels, 24 4-way blinders, 20 Atomic Strobes and eight Chromlech Jarag fixtures.
Although Phaseshift provided most of the gear – including 24 Martin MAC 2000 Wash fixtures that it had acquired shortly before the conference – the company thanked Cairellie Showcraft, Entertainment Installations and Resolution X for helping with the number of LC Panels required for the event.
Along with Thorne, the crew from Forefront Productions included Josh Oastler (coolux technician), Brad Allen (motion graphics design), Nick Burns (artistic direction) and Ben Schrader (logistics/electrician).
Phaseshift's crew included Jeremy Nolan (crew chief), Matt Downs (dimmer tech), Matt Spiker (light rigger) and Harley Parker (light rigger).
The setup and pack down crew included Lawrie Videky, Dave Jackson, Dave Taylor, Johnny Bamford, Tim Beeston, Simon Downs, Rob Oswald, Josh Evans, Michael Corbett, Jay Davis, Andrew Kilengray and Michael Loughnan.
For more information, please visit www.showtech.com.au .
