The event was taped at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta (photo: Prince Williams)
USA - Bandit Lites illuminated the 8th Annual Black Music Honours, a star-studded showcase that celebrates back excellence and trailblazers in music, ranging from gospel to R&B, Hip-Hop and more. This year’s honourees included music legend Missy Elliott, vocal trio SWV, disco and R&B star Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King, R&B/soul singer Jeffrey Osborne, and gospel trailblazers The Hawkins Family. Hosted by singer and actress LeToya Luckett and actor DeRay Davis, the event was taped at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta on Friday 19 May.
Lighting designer Mark Carver and production designer Scott Moore sought to utilise a range of fixtures that would offer the flexibility to build a range of looks for all the genres of music represented.
“We wanted fixtures that can look both retro and contemporary, and fixtures that have a vast colour palette enabling our team to use colour and texture style to differentiate between decades and genres as well as utilize both wash, strobe and hybrid fixtures,” Carver said.
Bandit Lites supplied nearly 300 fixtures including Ayrton Ghiblis, Chauvet Maverick MK 3 Spots, Chauvet Rogue R2X Washes, Chauvet Color STRIKE M, Elation Smarty Hybrids, Elation Color Chorus 12, GLP X4 Bar 20, HES SolaPix 19, HES SolaPix 37, Robe BMFL Follow Spots, Robe MegaPointes, Robe Spikie LED and a Robo Spot System.
Carver used the SolaPix 37 and 19s as colour wash fixtures for toning as well as utilizing their beam and pixel effects. The Maverick MK3 provided band and artist backlights and key lights, in addition to colour correction, colour and gobos. RoboSpots were used as back light spots for the artist while Color STRIKE M were used for strobe and pixel effects as well as eye candy for the camera. Chauvet R2X washes supplied audience lighting for colour and colour correction toning. The Robe MegaPointes and Elation Smartys were used as beam effect and gobo effect lights.
“The MegaPointe is very impressive in output, colour palette and speed,” said Carver. “It also has great optic range.”
Bandit’s experience in lighting special events with tight timeframes means that the gear and crew arrive fully prepped, allowing programmers more time to deliver their results.
“Having network and time code capabilities that Bandit provides is essential in being able to program this amount of material in a short amount of time,” said Carver. “Also having the system come in well prepped and set up to our programming spec and workflow helps to insure we are not wasting time with modes and addresses on site. This allows us to hit the ground running once the system is in and begin programming as quickly as we are able. Bandit provided a 100% system for the duration meeting all our specs.”

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