UK - MTV has been busy recording the sixth series of Brand New, a programme dedicated to upcoming talent tipped to break through in 2013. Previous discoveries include Lady GaGa, Justin Bieber and Ke$ha as well as UK talent including Tinie Tempah, Wretch 32 and Jessie J.
For the new series LD Piers Cox wanted an LED batten for backlighting and pixelmapping effects. He was looking for versatile units with plenty of punch to provide striking lighting effects but also with the ability to provide smooth crossfades and subtle colours. He approached Matt Mountier and Ed Railton from Limelite Lighting of Cranbrook, Kent, lighting suppliers for the series. They met him at the PLASA show in September and took him to the MilTec stand to see the LEDHead Batten2 being demonstrated.
Fitted with 18x 8W quadcolour LEDs, the Batten2 gives a very bright output with excellent colour mixing, thanks to the carefully designed optics. Thirty units were specified and installed in 15 columns of two units across the rear of the stage as part of a matrix that also included I-Pix BB7s. The system was run from an Avolites Pearl Expert.
Mountier commented, "These battens have proved to be extremely popular since we introduced them to our hire stock. They have been used for many different applications within the TV, Theatre and corporate events undertaken in 2012. They were the perfect solution for the effect Piers wanted to create for the MTV show and have proven to be extremely user friendly and reliable."
The series will be transmitted in 2013 and the audience will be invited to vote for their favourite artist. Last year's winner Conor Maynard went on to have a number 1 album in the UK.
