CCG lights up Senior Convocation
Published: MEA
QATAR: Creative Communication Group (CCG) was hired by QMDI Event Organizer to produce the light and sound for the third Senior Convocation of Qatar Education City. The event included a celebratory concert by Saudi Arabian singer Abdul Majid Abdullah.
There were some limitations to the lighting system that could be used due to the shape of venue and the stage. There was no way to add front lights and a 12m lighting truss needed to be used. Due to these restrictions, the CCG lighting crew decided to use the Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1200 from the control area located about 40m from the stage. This position was not ideal, but by crossing the beams with a good angle the performance was not affected.
The lighting was also affected by the large LED wall on stage. The quantity of light on stage created by this meant CCG needed to balance it with the Clay Paky Alpha Wash and Alpha HPE 1200. ‘The light output of the Alpha 1200 is great, especially using the narrow beam; we could see clearly the aerial effects,’ commented Michel Khairallah, head of CCG’s lighting department.
A total of 86 Clay Paky units were used for the Senior Convocation. 24 1200 Washes, 12 1200 Spots, 12 1200 Profiles, 24 1500 Beams and 14 300 Beams.
‘We decided to add 24 Alpha Beam 1500, 12 for each side 5m from each other, and shooting them on the sky, creating great crossing beam effects,’ said lighting designer, Giovanni Zucchnali. ‘We also added 24 alpha beam 300, some of them on top of the sides of the LED screen, outside the stage, some of them on front of the stage, and some other right above the control area. In this way we could ‘enfold’ the audience under 48 beams of light. The light programming was done following a simple track. Everything was live; Because of this I made some movement and colors that were matching my feeling, listening to the music.’
‘Adding those 48 alpha beams gave us the opportunity to concentrate a lot on different effects and movements on them, so the real stage was not only where physically the artists were performing, but at that point the stage was all the venue, also the audience was part of it,’ added Mr Khairallah.
‘The alphas worked perfectly, we didn't have any single issue during those days,’ said Jalal Dudin, CCG MD. ‘The entire system was extremely reliable, the NPU and the Optocore DD6NE (fast Ethernet Network device with 150m optic fiber cables) together with the GrandMa2 full size with the networking process unit were perfect as usual.’