“A Day on the Green” a Walk in the Park

“A Day on the Green” Australia Day Special was held at Bimbadgen Estate in the Hunter Valley, NSW with Kait Hall producing a spectacular lighting rig. The line up included Jimmy Barnes, Diesel, Mahalia Barnes, Baby Animals, Tim Rogers, Archie Roach and Tex Perkins with the concert going live to air for Music Max.

Heavy rain during most of the bump in didn’t deter the lighting crew with production supplied by Phaseshift while video was supplied by Group Productions. The rig included Martin MAC 700 Profiles™, MAC 700 Washes™, MAC TW1™ tungsten wash lights, Atomic 3000 DMX™ strobes with Atomic Colors™ scrollers, LED tubes and Martin LC Series™ LED panels. The Martin gear is distributed in Australia through Show Technology.

Caught on camera
Kait was given free reign with the lighting design and she was pleasantly surprised to find that the client was generous with the budget!

“They took me for my word which was great,” she remarked. “The rig was designed primarily for the cameras and I tried to work within the shape of the orbit stage to make sure that some kind of light or video panel was in every camera angle. Jimmy Barnes has never used any video component in his show before but was keen to do so and hence extra budget was allowed for this.”

Having only been hired for the event nine days prior, Kait not only had to design a lighting rig she also had to source her video content. “With Missy Higgins it’s a very lyrical based design but not so with Jimmy,” she said. “It was trickier to find appropriate content for his songs as it’s a totally different kind of lyric.”

The LC experience
After using the Martin LC Series panels successfully on the last Missy Higgins tour as well as at the Pyramid Rock Festival, Kait was keen to use them again. The LC Series is a semi-transparent, modular system of LED panels, perfect for displaying video and images.

”These gigs have all been outdoors with limited set up times and little programming time in the dark,” she said. “However, as the LC panels are so bright they are clearly visible in the day. This was particularly important on this gig as I had four acts prior to Jimmy Barnes; the LC panels could still provide a dramatic impact in daylight hours. You can also do that with some of the high price video walls but most of these acts just can’t afford them.

”The LC panels are quick and easy to set up and light enough to be able to incorporate into many things. More than anything else, it really comes down to budget as it’s the first time that LED screens have become an option for these bands. They’re amazingly bright which incidentally helps with televised gigs. On this gig the crowd was illuminated from the screen which helps with camera angles into the crowd. That was an added bonus which also allows more audience interaction with the artist as they can actually see them.”

MAC TW1
This gig was the first one that Kait had used the Martin MAC TW1 tungsten fixtures on, hanging eight of them from the front truss to supply key specials for the band members.

”I thought the TW1’s were fabulous and I really like them,” stated Kait. “They were great for the camera guys. As some of the bands didn’t turn up until about half an hour before they were due on stage I couldn’t have heaps of Fresnels or profiles as it wasn’t possible to hang them neatly for all the shots. The TW1’s enabled me to have fewer lights and to put them wherever I wanted without having to rehearse and have pre-focused positions.”

Also in Kait’s rig were eight MAC 700 Profiles, twelve MAC 700 Washes, and four MAC 600 wash lights. She also hung LED tubes from the roof so there were no dead, black spaces on the roof underside from particular camera angles.