Lighting the Heart of New Zealand’s Southern Alps

Alpine Unity, a huge outdoor musical event and unique New Year’s celebration, took place some month’s ago in the heart of New Zealand’s Southern Alps (near one of the primary film locations for Lord of the Rings.)

New Zealand’s Middle Earth Productions launched the international festival with full technical production and design provided by Illuminati-Nz. Middle Earth and Illuminati-Nz saturated the event in an abundance of Martin Professional lighting.

The festival creates a key focus on New Zealand live music and state-of-the-art production technology and has become a pilgrimage for international DJ’s, and punters. The festival features six musical environments: Trance, Progressive, House, Hard House, Drum & Bass, Dub and Hip-hop.

Production challenges

After the first site survey, Illuminati-Nz realized they were facing quite a production challenge. With the sheer size of the valley and surrounding slopes, over two thousand feet of rock fall, and the brightness from a full moon shining clear as day, they knew that club lighting was not going to cut it.

MAC power

Illuminati-Nz used four newly arrived MAC 2000s along with New Zealand’s only custom glass gobos to match. Located on a mountain knoll overlooking the site, the MAC’s had clear line of sight to the rest of the valley.

Technical and Production Director Mike Smith of Illuminati-Nz., who was also responsible for the lighting design, comments, "We could hardly believe the distances we were dealing with and clarity involved in the MAC 2000’s optic path when used with custom gobos. We had logos up to four kilometers away and over a hundred meters high on surrounding slopes. The 2000s kept the pace set by two WWI, Carbon Arc searchlights, roaming the skies with zoom capability to cover entire marquees in custom gobos. Custom domes were constructed to house the 2000s. Temperate variables created harsh circumstances for the Martin equipment to perform. The events would not have been the same without the Martin technology." Equipment for the event was supplied locally from Illuminati-Nz, Electro Tech Services, Hang Up Entertainment and Shipleys Audio Visual.

The show was controlled via a recently purchased Martin LightJockey PCMCIA 1024 (plus DMX IN), hosted within a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop. Performance was flawless reports Mike.

Custom designed dance environments

Each musical environment was uniquely designed: Drum and Base used dual head Martin RoboScan Pro 918s; House a forest of MAC 250s and mirror balls; Hard House a life size mushroom garden dressed by MiniMACs and MAC 500s; and Progressive/Trance a host of MAC 2000s, 500s and 600s.

Each area was powered by the Martin LightJockey, utilizing DMX out. Operators worked in pairs, trading between client desks offering real time handles and the console stacking complex sequencing.

"Every area was pre-designed using the LightJockey’s Offline Visualizer," states Mike, "and all festival parameters were set in a night. I smiled when every pallet was so close, it was almost plug and play from the start. We even made it to the beer garden previous to the event."

Setting new standards

Middle Earth Productions set new standards in crew comfort and performance management during the event. Alpine Unity is one of the most remote locations in the world for outdoor lighting and was a carefully planned experience.

"We were proud to take Martin equipment into an environment where we can´t afford mistakes and where we can actively demonstrate the power and robustness of the Martin Professional range," Mike stated. "We had first strike every time – Illuminati-Nz recommends Martin Professional for your next Alpine Festival camping experience."

Flock Hill Station, where the festival takes place, is located in the Pristine Craigieburn Valley and gateway to six remote yet internationally rated ski fields on New Zealand’s South Island. Flock Hill Lodge is located within one of the largest remaining private Stations in the country covering a massive 14,000 hectares. Access is offered in the form of jet boat, horse, unimog, 4WD or helicopter.