A crowd of up to 12,000 people came from far and wide as Sheffield Arena played host to 1Xtra’s extravaganza of the UK’s best young artists to date. Lighting visionaries Paula Trounce and Cate Carter of Siyan Ltd. delivered a spectacular optical treat to match a heavy star studded line up. With the combination of their professional know-how, plus our D4 Visions they were able to have as many options open to them as possible. Especially, Paula goes on to say, when controlling several different types of fixtures.

The main stage handled seven five meter hangs across the back, whereas centre stage hung eight three meter long panels upon a circular truss. This integrated a Kinesis motor system and could be raised or lowered throughout the performances duration (or used as a clever little reveal). The amazing array of panels certainly fired up the mood while the main stage lights were made up of Mac 2k wash, Sgm cmy spots, Jarags, BB4, Colour punch, Nova lites, Sunstrips, pixel line and a Palco. Meanwhile, the walkway and centre stage was formed from Mac 2k wash lights, Sunstrips, Mac 111 spots and Vl 3.5k wash lights. Their D4 visions (slaved to a Showsafe) controlled the main stage and centre stage, while an extra D4 lay as a contingency system. They also ran a Pearl Expert simultaneously for the TV lights as the whole system ran via optical. The video screens were PixLED F40 and content was fed by two Hippo Critters (one controlled by each D4 Vision).

From using her first Avolites console back in ‘95 (aged ten) Paula has come a long way in her accidental LD career, while Cate began her Avolife working as a crew member in local productions, but both have a firm fondness for the Avo consoles.

Headlined by none other than Dizzie Rascal ‘Grime’ was certainly no crime as the home-grown line up included acts such as Tinchy Strider, Chipmunk, Kano and Taio Cruz, with a smidge of JLS, Sugarbabes and other hot pop acts. In fact it was the biggest 1Xtra line up to date at only their second 1Xtra Live gig.

1Xtra launched itself in 2002 and now reaches a mass audience of 634,000 listeners a week. Tickets were free, while highlights were transmitted in a special show aired on BBC Three. To find out more about Paula and Cate see our LD Gallery.