Road Test: Strong Technobeam, page 40 - PLSN.com

PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS
LED Panels Create New Look for Finnish Talent Show
A contestant performs on Talent Suomi.
HELSINKI, Finland — Talent Suomi is the
Finnish version of the “Talent” TV franchise
(America’s Got Talent, Britain’s Got Talent, and
so on). The series, filmed at Angel Studios,
appeared last fall on the Nelonen network
(channel 4) and wrapped up with the finals in
December. LEDs played an important role in
achieving the overall look of the show, and in
keeping costs under control.
“As always, the budget for lighting was not
very big here, even for a big scale production,”
said LD Teemu Pietiläinen of Martin distributor
Electrosonic Lightinen Oy Ab of Finland.
Fremantle Entertainment “agreed to use the
Martin LC Series panels that I specified,” including
“a 4- by 6-meter LC Series LED screen (12 LC
2140 panels) at the back of the stage.”
Pietiläinen, who also programmed the
LC panels, said he chose them for their light
weight and flexibility, but added that the
panels’ transparency was the main factor
in their choice. With LEDs encased in clear
acrylic tubes, the LC screens are 60% transparent,
and allow light, air and effects to pass
through them.
“The transparency gives you so many
more advantages and possibilities,” he said.
“You can place fixtures behind the LCs or
throw some smoke through them. One quite
interesting point was that they look like prison
bars when they are lit from the top. We
weren’t actually going for that but it was an
interesting look. And of course everybody in
Finland, LDs especially, were quite interested
to see how they would perform on television
with its lower resolution.”
Teemu said that Juha-Matti Valtonen, the
director of the show, liked the resolution of
the panels. “We have of course seen those
high resolution panels on TV,” Teemu says,
“but the LC gives you such a nice effect on
TV compared to them. You cannot actually
see the pixels of the screen on close-up shots,
but instead you see much larger ‘points,’ like
coins, behind the performance and that is really
something new. The color depth of the
screen is absolutely fantastic.”
The panels, which were used at only about
30% intensity, performed well throughout
the show. “We couldn’t drive the panels with
their full power,” Pietiläinen said. “They really
are bright. The strobe effect is powerful and
quite nice as well.”
With a familiar truss assembly, the panels
were easy to assemble, and “it was quite simple
to set up with the LC software,” Pietiläinen
said. “The ease of installation is really amazing.
It took only one hour for the guys to take the
panels out of their cases, hang them on the
truss and make the connections.” Each LC unit
contained a switch mode power supply, plus
a genlock feature, to minimize light-flicker
when the screens are seen on TV broadcasts.
Other Martin gear used on the show included
10 MAC 2000 Profiles, 8 MAC TW1s, 6
MAC 600s, 6 MAC 300s, 6 MAC 250 Entours
and 4 Atomic 3000 strobes with a pair of
Jem Glaciator providing a low lying carpet of
heavy fog. Qualifying rounds featured 8 MAC
TW1s and 4 MAC 2000 Profiles.
A Hippotizer media server, placed behind
the stage, was used to provide the digital
media. Lighting control was from a GrandMA
with lighting programming by Jani Toivola.
All Martin gear was supplied by Finnish company
Moving Light.
NEWS
Projected Images
on Rio Ferris Wheel
continued from page 45
Along with 25,000 ANSI lumens,
the projectors each offer HD+ (2048 x
1080) resolution and 10-bit image processing.
The Ferris wheel can hold up
to 144 passengers, but they aren’t the
only ones who can see the images. The
projections are visible from miles away.
They help draw customers to two bars
at the base of the structure that offer
games, dancing and dining.
ON Projecoes, which handled the
installation, is accredited by InfoComm
International as a Certified AudioVisual
Solutions Provider (CAVSP). The company
also won an award for its giant,
multi-screen display using 36 Christie
projectors at the annual São Paulo
Fashion Week, 2005 Winter Edition.
Tieres Tavares, manager of ON Projecoes’
Miami office, noted challenges
including the need to erect a temporary
tower that could withstand the strong
winds coming in from the bay. “Because
of the location of the installation, it was
important that we used quality projectors
with a proven track record of performance,”
said Tavares. “Christie projectors
have an excellent reputation.”
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2008 March PLSN 49