Lighting designer Mark Hanna specified an Avolites Diamond 4 Desktop PC (D4PC) –
system to run a 4 week long promotional show for Toyota at Bluewater Shopping
Centre in Kent.
The star of the show was a 3D holographic projection of the new Toyota Auris
family saloon, which spun in mid air, complete with life-sized human test
driver. This was produced by Musion, working for producers Brandwidth.
Hanna was required to light the stage and backdrop to the 3 minute looped show
that ran throughout Bluewater’s opening hours. It was a very specific lighting
task requiring great attention to detail to ensure that the 3D effect appeared
as authentic as possible.
Hanna wanted a reliable PC-based system that could be left to run the show to
timecode for 4 weeks. He chose D4PC because he’d been wanting to try it for some
time and thought the application was “ideal”. He also wanted to programme the
show on “a proper desk”, for which he used a Diamond 4 Elite. The show was then
transferred to the laptop running D4PC via a USB key, and set up to be triggered
via timecode from a video feed. “it was just the job!” he concludes.
Lighting fixtures utilised included JTE PixelPARs which were used to uplight the
backdrop and Martin Professional MAC 300s, 500s and 600s used for back-lighting
the foil. These were supplied by a combination of PRG and AC Lighting.
Hanna’s work includes numerous corporate and brand experiential events. He says,
“The service and support from Avo was fantastic as always, and I will definitely
use the D4 desktop again where appropriate”.
This is the second time that Bluewater has used the D4PC system. The large array
of fixtures utilised for their 2006 Christmas show was also run from the virtual
D4 console, again under timecode control. For this project, the kit was supplied
by DPL, and the installation and programming was undertaken by lighting
designer, Pete Watts.
Avolites D4PC is a fully functional “Virtual” Diamond 4 Console offering a fully
featured playback system for situations like this when a full console is not
required.
It’s also great for offline programming, editing or adaptation of shows. At the
heart of the D4 Desktop system is a PC, running MS Windows XP with available USB
ports.
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