Night of the Proms 2005 – a spectacular arena-sized combination of classical and pop music – celebrates the show’s 21st year, once again proving it’s the most popular and most visited live performance in Europe. NOTP is on a 3 month sold out tour of Belgium, Holland and Germany.
The show – with large format projections supplied by E\T\C and sound and lighting equipment and crew supplied by Belgian based EML – kicked off at its traditional ‘first stop’ venue – Antwerp Sportpaleis. Here it plays 18 nights to 15,000 plus people before moving on to Rotterdam.
This year the action-packed Antwerp line up features Roger Daltry, Donna Summer, John Miles, Ace of Base, Safri Duo and Fine Fleur plus a 48 piece choir and a 67 piece orchestra conducted by Robert Groslot.
Production manager Phillip Lengele is once again overseeing all the technical and staging elements, and ensuring that the traditional, friendly NOTP vibe is maintained throughout among crew and performers.
Projection
Last year NOTP upped the production ante and changed the look of the show dramatically with the introduction of large format projection on a widescreen backdrop.
This year E\T\C was once again back onboard, supplying two PIGI 7 Kw projectors with double rotating scrollers and special artwork. The machines are front projecting and are fully optimised for maximum visual impact. Projection was originally introduced into the show by lighting designer Geert Vanhout. The concept proved incredibly successful in 2004, so it was definitely back on the agenda this year. However they also needed to move the show onwards and make it look different.
This time around, Vanhout came up with the idea of a series of strips of electric rolling screens, that could be utilised either as one upstage uniform projection surface, or could be shaped and broken up into different combinations. The material is a special mesh which takes the projections perfectly.
The screen is made up of eight 4 metre wide strips, each 12 metres high, in a DMX controlled system that was specially designed for NOTP by EML’s engineering workshop. For the show it is operated by Olivier Demoustier from his WholeHog 2 console, which is also controlling all the moving lights.
Vanhout again worked closely with E\T\C’s Ross Ashton to produce the projection artwork which was all specially originated for the show. It involves a miscellany of images from sunsets and landscapes to children’s drawings to abstracts, skin and fur texturings to flowers.
Projection runs for 85 per cent of the show, with most songs featuring several different images. Vanhout comments, “Once again it was a really good experience collaborating with Ross Ashton. The projection brings another perspective and dimension to the stage, really boosting the dynamics and visuality of the show”.
Lighting
On the lighting front, Vanhout once again chose a large moving light rig – he has a busy show containing a vast array of different styles and genres of music – from d ‘n’ b to classical! His moving light rig consists of twenty VL4s, twenty-four VL3000s, twenty-four VL2500 Spots, five VL2416s and 28 VL2Cs to lighting the audience. With the VL4’s and the 2Cs being quality antiques, Vanhout maintains “They still have something very special – including their own personalities!”
Aside from these, there are 72 PARs, some Moles and scrollers, 20 strobes, some smaller “Batman eyes” 500W blinders and several strings of ACLs for audience illumination. Eight straight trusses move up and down during the show, draped with custom triangular shaped pieces of “Tiger Net” LED cloth. These fly in to form an LED ceiling over stage at one point, moved using the German Batalpha motor control system and half tonne Lodestar motors.
EML has made some serious investment in LED for the 2005 show. A 36 metre wide colour changing LED starcloth fills the ear of stage, which EML commissioned from Showtex in Antwerp. The cloth is supplied in 3 metre wide sections and is inlaid with thousands of twinkling LEDs consuming 1600 DMX channels! The music stands onstage are also under-lit with LED strips that can be dimmed and colour changed from the lighting desk.
All the moving lights, the LED sources, strobes, projectors and the rolling screens are controlled by Olivier Demoustier’s WholeHog 2. Vanhout meanwhile runs a trusty Avolites Sapphire console which controls all the generics.
“As always” says Vanhout, “The challenge is doing something different each year. The new show is just 9 months after the last one; the time passes very quickly and as well as expecting some familiar elements to the show, the public also expect new and exciting parameters – particularly with the visuals”
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