This year's electrifying Nobel Peace Prize Concert saw Philips Vari-Lite VL3000 Spot luminaires, supplied by Norway's AVAB CAC, star as the power luminaire of choice for respected lighting director Nick Collier.
"The main challenge in lighting this particular show is the variety of performers," explains Collier, who took over lighting design duties from original designer, Al Gurdon. "The design has to bring out the best in Peter Bingemann's excellent set, and allow us the ability to deliver a unique look to each of the tracks. To this end, the VL3000 Spot is the obvious candidate. It has a very bright lamp, with excellent zoom optics."
American actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Scottish actor Gerard Butler hosted the annual event held at the Spektrum Arena, Oslo while performances came from Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Hudson and Seal amongst others.
The set, which comprises three circular stages, each featuring an equally sized, lampshade style projection surface above, hosts the 10 unique acts along with the centrally positioned Norwegian Radio Orchestra, conducted by Nick Davies.
Collier, who was assisted by PRG's head of event services Richard Gorrod, programmer Alex Passmore and Catalyst and content programmer Nev Bull, certainly had his work cut out. "The length of show and variety of acts means that the lighting rig really has to work hard to add individuality to each of the show's 'looks'," he says. "I need to know that the fixtures can act as a fast, powerful 'rock' lamps one minute, and accurate, steady focused lamps, the next. The VL3000 Spots can do all this, plus the mixture of textured gobos and beam gobos gives plenty of variety, and the speed of all the attributes within the fixture, really help the transitions between scenes. The accurate colour rendering of the lamp also gives the VL3000 Spot the edge when using it as a key light source."
Not only did Collier need to create uniquely appropriate looks for each act but he also had to impress the near 7000 capacity live audience, while satisfying the millions of TV watching public in over 100 countries worldwide. To do this, the entire arena became his canvas. Lighting added sparkle to the acts on stage but also reached out into the audience making them an integral part of the show. Collier blurred the line between performer and observer beautifully and brought a real sense of intimacy to the huge stadium.
Although AVAB CAC supplied Lighting equipment, PRG's Richard Gorrod oversaw the logistics of the project. "The VL3000 spot as a workhorse is bright and reliable," he explains. "The fast colour mixing and a broad choice of colours in the designer wheel along with the variable CTO wheel make it ideal for keying. All three wheels of rotating gobos are great."
