MAC 500 specified for BBC Studios

The BBC incorporates Martin lighting in many of their popular shows including Top of the Pops, the seminal weekly chart music show internationally famous for launching the careers of hundreds of pop stars. In the three decades since it first premiered, TOTP has been viewed as a technical showcase for the lighting industry, featuring the latest lighting effects around its elaborate stage sets.

A typical TOTP stage set consists of no less than 12 MAC 500 heads combined with 28 Martin MAC 600s. (As is often the case with the MAC range, when the MAC 500 has been specified, the MAC 600 has been as well.) MAC 500 and 600 moving head luminaires are an integral part of the famous Top of the Pops audiovisual experience and are, in fact, the only permanent moving head light fixtures employed by the BBC for the program.

So important is the imagination and variety of the TOTP lighting designs that beam into millions of UK homes every Friday evening, that the BBC employs no less than five different lighting designers on a rotational basis. In turn, three different lighting operators are employed on the set, again rotationally, to absolutely guarantee the power and dynamism of the light shows

Martin MAC 500s can also be spotted in England on the National Lottery Show; Noel’s House Party, the popular live BBC comedy series which features a host of international stars every week, filmed both in the studio and ‘on-location’; Later with Jools Holland, ex-Squeeze keyboard player’s music show featuring international bands and musicians; and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, a popular BBC comedy pop quiz in which the lighting plays an integral part in the show.

The BBC does not have a monopoly on the MAC 500 however. Britain’s SMTV Live, ITV’s Saturday morning music chart show is currently entertaining viewers with a full compliment of 80 Martin MACs. The show features up to seven bands performing live on one of four stages every week and is broadcast from the London Television Centre on the South Bank every Saturday morning.

SMTV Live has one of the largest moving light rigs to move in and out of a TV studio every week. Lighting Director, Mark Kenyon is delighted with the performance of the lighting. He chose the 40 MAC 500s and 40 MAC 600s for their reliability, versatility and capabilities together with the fact that they are an affordable lamp that can create the atmosphere he requires easily and quickly.