Utopium’s managing director Colin Bodenham worked with lighting designer Simon Tutchener, who designed the show and ran the desk for two of the shows - Vanessa Mae and Lulu - with Utopium’s crew adapting the rig to suit the other performances. Heading that crew were Stuart Farrell who ran the desk and Angus Chinn, who managed the power distribution and technical support. The team had their work cut out thanks to the run-rate of four shows every day. "Time constraints meant that we could not move lights around the rig very often," said Colin, "so we designed a rig that would cope with pretty much everything through refocusing and some sharp operating!"
As with so many projects, Utopium invested in equipment to make sure the event had the most suitable equipment to create the best lighting. "We looked at the venue and decided to invest in a new truss (from Tomcat) that mirrored the shape of the marquee. The truss meant that Simon had plenty of space the work with in an interesting shape." The ground supported truss system was kitted out with 12 6 lamp bars, Martin MAC 500s and 600s, Death-star strobes, ETC Source Four profiles, ADB Fresnels, ACLs and Molefays, all controlled by an Avolites Pearl 2000 run through Avolites dimmers. The rest of the site was lit with a variety of MBIs, ETC Profiles, ETC PARnels, ETC Pars and acres of festoon lighting.
