Vince Foster was the lighting designer for N-E-R-D featuring Justin Timberlake, working with MTV director Russell Thomas, Solo's Mark Ward and MTV Europe production manager Andy Derbyshire. It was the first time Foster had worked with Siyan. They supplied the rig to his spec, and he was extremely pleased with the results and the attention to detail. The ColorSpot 1200s were rigged on the downstage truss and used as powerful, all-important key lights. The rig also featured 20 Robe ColourWash 250 XTs, several other moving lights, a host of generics including PARs and Molefeys plus some James Thomas Pixelline battens. Foster controlled all lighting with his Wholehog II console.
Siyan also provided the lighting for the NME Awards 2004, staged at Hammersmith Palais. Bryan Leitch designed the show, which again featured Robe ColorSpot 1200s - the only fixtures used on the over-stage rig. The brightness and power was such that no others were needed, and the intensity so great that they were wound back to 20% to avoid dazzling the seated guests in the relatively intimate venue.
Siyan also supplied included a substantial amount of audience lighting. All of it was programmed by Nick Whitehouse using two Avolites Sapphire 2000 consoles. The stage lightshow was operated by Whitehouse using one desk, and the audience lighting by Matt Arthur using the other. A dozen Robe ColorWash 250 XTs were also used - "they're such an ideal and handy size for this type of venue," says Leitch.
Other projects for Siyan and the Robe fixtures have included the NME Brats Tour at Brixton Academy (LD Tom James), and The Thrills, also at Brixton Academy (LD Geoff Hall). Using the 1200s on such a wide variety of shows has enabled the Siyan team to put them through their paces thoroughly. Before this, they'd conducted a shoot-out with other fixtures at Somerset House when they supplied kit to illuminate the Ice Rink. Here they discovered several things including what Leitch described as the "incredibly long throw and the accuracy of the focus and flat field."
Leitch was impressed with the speed of movement and internal functions such as gobo changing, and the robustness of the build. Other neat features include the on-fixture menu which he thinks is brilliant, allowing the changing of addresses from the ground and any single parameter to be re-set individually without extinguishing the lamp.
(Lee Baldock)
