X4 Bar shines for Australian X Factor
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: This year’s Australian X Factor finals featured on-stage illumination from GLP’s new X4 Bar fixtures. Australian TV lighting designer, Ian Anderson of Mitech Design, reportedly called upon the new fixtures ‘as soon as they arrived in the country’. The inventory was supplied by the German manufacturer’s exclusive Australian distributor, Show Technology.
‘As soon as the demo stock arrived at Show Technology, I grabbed them,’ enthused Mr Anderson, who opted to deploy up to 18 of the 20-inch and 40-inch high performance battens within the set to give him the option of creating either a narrow angle light curtain or a wide angle backlight/wash. ‘We often have completely different floor packages for performances that we can wheel on and off — usually within a three-minute commercial break — and the Bars were perfect in that respect.’
Mr Anderson has now served as lighting director on all six series of the X Factor franchise, which is aired live from Stage 5 at Fox Studio in Sydney, and is produced by Fremantle Media Australia for the Seven Network. Mitech Design also provided technical production management services for the past four series.
‘I was unsure how the X4 Bars would look on television, as so often we see LED products that just can’t keep a clean beam look on camera. But as soon as I saw them I knew they were going to be perfect,’ continued Mr Anderson. ‘Also, the zoom in them is superb. It really makes all the difference on camera to be able to get a very clean beam to cut through all the other elements – whether it be moving lights or the hundreds of square metres of video screens we have. As with all the X4 products the colour rendition is great especially in the reds and ambers.
‘We have a pretty tight creative team and when one of us suggests something new we all just tend to want to make it work,’ concluded Mr Anderson. ‘The team fell in love with the Bars instantly. They have been operating flawlessly, and we are about to give them another run, but this time flown.’