Javier Tan’s high-impact lighting design matched the exuberance of the high profile public event (photo: Louise Stickland)
Singapore - Over 400 Robe moving lights boosted the magic and spectacle of the 45th Singapore Chingay Parade to celebrate Chinese New Year – The Year of the Rooster.
Javier Tan’s colourful high-impact lighting design matched the glamour, glitz and exuberance of the high profile public event, featuring an ebullient cast of 8000, creatively directed by Fan Dong Kai and staged at the F1 Pit Building in the city centre.
The glittering show was organized by the People’s Association (PA). It celebrated the diversity and multi-cultural nature of the nation’s population and was watched live by President, Dr. Tony Tan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, plus assorted political, dignitaries and VIPs together with approximately 200,000 excited members of the public over two nights. It was also recorded for broadcast.
Javier is one of the region’s top lighting designers and a big Robe advocate. He has lit Chingay before on the same site in 2013, so he knew in the early planning stages that the most powerful lightsources available were needed, so he chose Robe’s BMFLs.
To help wash the parade route and the six massive grandstands which accommodated 30,000 spectators, he specified 216 x BMFL Blades, 56 x BMFL WashBeams and 112 x Robe ColorStrobes.
Additional wash lighting was provided by 56 x Robe LEDWash 600s, with all the event’s lighting and audio kit supplied by top Singapore rental company, CSP Productions Pte Ltd.
The lights were rigged on a series of gantries and towers erected along the backs of the seating grandstands on both sides, arranged in layers to add depth to the picture and emphasise the dimension and scale of the space.
The BMFL Blades were on the middle levels with the WashBeams on the tops of the towers, easily dealing with the 65 metre throw distance. “I needed power and the brightness and it was absolutely the best choice,” confirmed Javier.
The BMFL Blades created some stunning aerial and beam effects. They textured the floor, a raised runway along one side and a waterway running the full 360 metres down the other, helping the lively, animated environment further zing with energy!
The ColorStrobes were positioned on the upper gantry rail, all the way along, where they could easily immerse the entire crowd and performance area with colours and effects.
Four lighting consoles were used to run the show lighting, which also included some other moving and LED lights plus 40 fog machines. He worked with his regular very stylish team of programmers Clement Cheong and Joyce Goh who kept everything cool, calm and efficient at FOH.
Chingay 2017 Singapore’s technical director was Yong Fa. CSP's lighting crew chief on site was Colin Foo and their technical managers Alan Lee and Pete Win Tin ensured that everything ran smoothly from the warehouse end.
(Jim Evans)

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