It is the second series of the Slovakian Pop Idol roll out. Such is its popularity that STV1's weekly Friday night prime time show had to be moved to a larger venue - the Incheba Expo in Bratislava - with a capacity of 5,000. The show is also being watched by up to a third of the county's 5.5 million population, and is proving a great boost for Slovakia's burgeoning young musical talent.
All lighting for the series is supplied by leading Bratislava-based rental company Q-99, who also supplied the inaugural series last year which also featured Robe moving lights. Q-99 has invested heavily in Robe over the last year to keep pace with it's busy schedule which includes many of the top TV shows, concerts, tours, conferences and corporate events.
Kubanka and Schmidt work closely with Superstar's lighting cameraman Jaroslav Zeman to produce the looks he wants for camera. Each week has to have a distinct look and different feel of its own, and within the show, each act also has to have its own individual lighting look - so plenty of diversity is needed.
They also have the challenging task of making the show look equally exciting for the hugely enthusiastic live audience, for whom the occasion is also very special. "This is why we used Robe fixtures," says Kubanka "Because of the dynamics and creative scope offered by all their features - we never run out of functions to make different looks and scenes."
The futuristic set was designed by Danil Šichman and the late Maros Kravec and features a selection of different sized LED panels and curvaceous metallic trussing and metalwork. The overhead lighting trusses criss-cross above the stage, enabling lighting fixtures to be hung everywhere they are needed, to hit the various performance areas of the large space.
Kubanka and Schmidt utilize different Robe fixtures to perform different tasks. Twenty-six ColorSpot 1200E ATs and ten ColorWash 1200E ATs are used along the main upstage trusses for beam and gobo effects and set washing. A further 20 ColorSpot 575 ATs and Scan 575 XTs are scattered around the rig in the air and on the floor for dramatic cross stage lighting, filling and general effects.
They have had custom gobos made for some of the Robes, and Kubanka comments that the standard gobos are also good in Robes. While he's not used the multi-colour gobo options so much on this show, it's also a feature he likes, and of course the colour correction facility on the 1200s to balance the fixtures with tungsten sources is a great aid in TV lighting.
Schmidt also has approximately 120 PARs and a few other conventional fixtures at his disposal, plus some ARRI white lights, but the vast majority of the show's lighting relies on Robe. "Apart from the wealth of features, all the Robe fixtures are bright for their specific class and that's exactly what we needed to have balancing the lighting and contrast it with all the onstage LED sources" comments Schmidt. He runs the show using a GrandMA console.
Q-99's Marek Adamik says: "It's great to be working on the second Superstar Series. It has a massive profile and because the first series was so successful there was great pressure on to improve and make it look even better, resulting in plenty of experimentation with the lights. I think the lighting department has excelled itself and has had a big hand in the overall show design."
(Chris Henry)
