Technical innovation at the heart of Liverpool spectacular

High production values topped the agenda at Liverpool’s 'City of Light 2003' son et lumière spectacular, organised by Liverpool City Council’s Special Events Team, and staged in the middle of the lake in Sefton Park in the heart of the City.
The event, project managed by Kirstie Blakeman, production managed by Nick Handford and designed by Lee Forde, consisted of three 25-minute shows per night, watched for free by over 15,000 people.
At the technical and creative core of City of Light 2003 was a 40 metre wide by 20-metre high water screen. This formed the projection surface for the up-tempo show, featuring video and laser projections plus lighting effects to special sound track.
A three-tiered production platform, designed by site manager Stu Stalker, was built on the concrete foundations of the lake’s old boat house to house the entire technical infrastructure. The audience viewed the show from the natural slope across the other side of the lake.
Reflex, a locally based design and rental company from Hoylake on the Wirral. Working to Forde’s brief, the Reflex team was led by Ben Harding and Ian Tomlinson.
Eight Clay Paky Golden Scan HPEs were rigged on the top deck of the structure, and used to beam patterns onto the centre of the screen. These were augmented by eight Martin MAC 600s rigged on the second level, and two Studio Due City Colors also on the top deck. Three City Colors per side were used to illuminate the trees and foliage, and the picture was completed with two Dominator searchlights. All lighting was controlled from an Avolites Pearl
Projection, a fusion of video and static slides, was co-ordinated by Jon Hodgson of Creative Technology, engineered by Peter Wilms and operated by Kevin Evans. A Pani BP6 Gold with a single PIGI scroller on the front was used for the statics, and a Christie X10 10,000 lumen DLP projector ran the video. The video artwork was created by Martin Wallace of Nova Film & Video and the sources were stored on Doremi hard drive. Scroll artwork was created by Paul Chatfield, and the whole show was run using a Dataton control system.
Northampton-based Tour Tech took care of the audio with a crystal clear VDOSC system comprising 6 elements a side, and four subs in a block, along the middle of the top tier of the production structure. Powered with LA48a amps and processed via XTA DP226s, the time-coded audio feed was supplied off the video track. The show was run through an Allen & Heath GL2 desk, engineered by Tom Gordon and Miles Harrison. The expedient amount of VDOSC enclosures was more than enough to cover the throw distance, and some neat angling downwards ensured that any spillage was also contained.
The centrepiece of the show was supplied by LCI and tech’d by Wayne Haxton. It’s one of the largest waterscreens available in the country, and runs from two 75Kw Grundfus pumps which push the water into two specially designed plate nozzles. Over a tone of water is in the air at any one time and it moves 90 litres per minute at a pressure of 215 psi. The self-floating screen was dropped into the lake by crane and anchored in place
City of Light 2003 was the first time LCC has run an event in Sefton Park – previous son et lumières having been staged along the waterfront and at the docks. It proved a great success in terms of accessibility, and environmental conditions like wind were also a lot less extreme in the more sheltered location.
(GB)