BELFAST, U.K. — Production Services Ireland (PSI) supplied all lighting equipment and crew to the BBC Northern Ireland Children In Need event, staged at the Kings Hall in Belfast. The gig was part of the multi-city fundraising effort in aid of the 2009 BBC Children in Need Appeal, which resulted in donations of over £20 million. The money will be used to fund projects aiming to help make positive changes to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the U.K.
BBC Northern Ireland’s Jim Devlin designed the lighting and John Gallagher served as lighting programmer.
PSI’s project manager was Brian Reilly, who said, “It was great to work with Jim Devlin on another prestigious event for BBC Northern Ireland. All went very smoothly for a production of this size, and the teamwork between PSI’s staff and the BBC production team worked brilliantly.”
PSI has a long history of servicing BBC Northern Ireland’s events, and has supplied lighting to the annual Children In Need concert for several years.
This year lighting equipment included 80 Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E AT moving lights — 40 of each type; five bars of Studio Due CS4s; 30 i-Pix BB4 LED blinder/wash lights; 20 Thomas Pixel Pars; a selection of 2, 4 and 8-lite Molefeys; and ARRI 2K fresnels.
PSI also supplied 20 1-tonne Lodestar motors for lighting rigging and 4 Robert Juliat Ivanhoe followspots, which were installed on a “flying carpet”-style platform above the auditorium.
A comprehensive power distribution system was included as part of the package, featuring two of PSI’s custom GSL PD racks and Avolites ART dimmers. One of the main technical challenges was designing and providing the distribution and cable infrastructure, all of which was pre-planned in detail for smooth running on the day.
The control desk was John Gallagher’s own Compulite Vector Green.
The artist line up included Ronan Keating, N-Dubz, Sugababes and Tinchy Stryder, plus Escala, Eoghan Quigg, Sinead Quinn and the Dawn Breakers and local rockers Ash and The Saw Doctors. They all contributed the success of the show, which was presented by John Daly.
Jim Devlin said, “As we had a production in the studio at the same time, we turned to PSI to supply the full lighting production for Children in Need 2009. I was very pleased with the slick service, and PSI crew were a delight to work with.”
John Gallagher added, “The service from PSI has always been second to none. Their crew was headed by Joe Byrne for the fit up and show standby, and the staff were great. The RDM (Remote Device Management) system in place to remotely communicate with the Robe 700 fixtures was fantastic.”
For more information, please visit www.productionireland.com.
