The weekend of the 18th July 2009 saw the return of Ponty’s Big Weekend set in the grounds of Pontypridd war memorial park. Topping the bill was the multi platinum album selling, Brit Award winning girl band the Sugababes.
The festival also featured a star-studded line-up including the BBC’s Last Choir Standing winners ‘Only Men Aloud’, renowned opera singer Sian Cothi, Alex Roots and DJ Ironik.
Utopium Lighting was approached earlier in the year to design and create a lighting rig that would not only look stunning at night but also create an electric atmosphere in the light of a summer’s day while complimenting a varied line-up of musical styles.
The first stage in the design process was our in-house lighting designers creating a virtual 3D model of the stage system. This allowed us to work out what fixtures would create the maximum effect as well as deciding cable loom lengths, rigging point loads and power consumption.
Because a large proportion of the gig would be in daylight hours, we decided to use a plethora of LED fixtures, including James Thomas Pixel Line 1044, to create a dramatic moving backdrop. Using the revolutionary new GLP Impression moving heads, at only 7.5kg each, they allowed us to rig in positions that would not usually be possible. They also produce more light output than a 575w wash light so they were the perfect design choice for the daylight situation.
The second stage in the design/production stage was to hand over the design and drawings to the production lighting technician who makes up the cable looms to exact lengths, pre-patch the dimmer circuits, and patch and program the newest addition to our avolites family of lighting control consoles, the pearl expert. He could place all the fixtures in the designated positions using the latest titan control software on the onboard visualiser, and do some basic programming before we even set eyes on the venue.
The above steps cut down onsite rigging and programming time considerably, allowing us to use fewer technicians and less time while onsite.
The third stage, production. Although hampered by the sporadic heavy downpours that British summertime is so famous for, the rig was up in the air, tested, programmed and ready to rock in less than 12 hours.
Two members of Utopium Lighting staff, one lighting designer and one production technician were onsite throughout the weekend to take on the challenges of not only the weather but lighting the many different styles of act. This however was not a problem due to versatility of the rig, including 33 intelligent fixtures such as Martin Mac 700’s, 500’s and 600’s unique haze and smoke and a 48 way generic rig.
Overall the event was enjoyed by more than 6,000 people, and was considered a success not only by us but everyone who was involved.
Equipment used:
Avolites Pearl expert
Avolites Art 2000 Dimmers
6- Martin Mac 700
4- Martin Mac 500
4- Martin Mac 600
12- GLP Impressions
6- Thomas pixel Line 1044
38- PAR 64
4 -4 Cell Molefay
4-P16 Battons
2-2kw Fresnel
2- look unique 2 hazer
1-look Viper smoke machine
