A vintage look in Hannover (photo: Sascha Baumann)
Germany - Thomas Gottschalk once again gathered a who's who of ‘80s cult stars at the TUI Arena in Hannover for Gottschalk's Big 80s Show. Performances by Kim Wilde, Paul Young, Thomas Anders, Marc Almond and many more could be experienced on the set's four show stages, with the concert broadcast by ZDF.
Lighting cameraman / gaffer for the production was Michael Donecker. Frank Hofmann - better known as FH - from Scan Design Berlin was responsible for the show lighting design of a production that lasted for several hours. FH, who developed a penchant for lighting design early in life, today works predominantly for TV productions. He notes: “I wanted to create a vintage look that could be interpreted in a modern way - that is, to imitate the looks of those days but using modern technology.”
The set itself was dominated by video elements. A huge LED display of approx. 60m in width and six metres in height gave the stage a flexible visual design. In the centre were two movable LED screens, which parted to allow artists and guests to emerge and perform on stage.
To make the show as glamorous and, above all, as varied as possible FH decided to install a matrix of 48 (4x12) GLP KNV Dot. The KNV system had attracted the attention of the designer from an early stage, but initially he could not envisage any application possibilities for the larger KNV Arc or Cube modules. That changed abruptly when Michael Feldmann from GLP presented the new, compact KNV Dot at a trade fair.
"I used to think that the KNV system was more for the EDM genre, with its crashing lighting,” he admits. “But with the KNV Dot, I could see immediately that it was very nice and soft, adaptable to the music and the occasion. I knew different moods could be generated - and of course I wanted to try that.”
In the end, working with the Dots was a lot of fun, he says. "The Dots are enormously versatile. On the one hand I could work with different colours from the LED ring, on the other hand I could create very nice backlight effects with KNV’s typical ultra-bright, high power LED in the middle."
In addition to the KNV Dot, large quantities of other GLP classics, such as the GT-1, impression X4 and X4 Bar, also played an important role in the show’s lighting design.
(Jim Evans)

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