Martin MAC 600s highlight UK Conservative Party Conference 2000

Conference organizers, CCO Conferences Ltd., created an unusual set for the event. The design comprised a series of interlocking triangular geodesic panels constructed from Macrolon polycarbonate sheeting. As the transparent polycarbonate material is a surface that does not take light itself, it presented an unusual challenge to corporate lighting specialists, Essential Lighting.

The solution devised by one of Essential Lighting’s design team, Martin Locket, was to light a full width cyclorama upstage of the structure, to provide the most suitable surface on which to produce a wide range of lighting effects. Forty eight MAC 600 washlights were used as the mainstay of a 400 lamp system, producing a variety of color and movement effects to the cyclorama. Bob Dunstan and Dave Charters from Essential’s moving light department prepared the heads to the exacting standards that their customers have become accustomed to.

Locket explained, “Television is very unforgiving to incorrectly matched washlights in a situation like this and the care taken in the preparation has made the show much easier to light, and made a wider range of more adventurous effects possible.”

The lighting effects were imaginatively tailored to suit the themes under discussion. The conference was opened by Party Chairman Michael Ancram who described the party’s policies as black and white, in front of a starkly lit structure, in dramatic silhouette against a white cyclorama.

The “Believing in Britain” speech was accompanied by an impressive range of true-blue and yellow effects, while the constitutional debates were backed by a patriotic red, white and blue cyclorama. As the conference progressed, the versatile MAC 600s were used to full effect as both up- and down-lighting on the cyclorama. The washlight’s well proven CMY color mixing system was used to create virtually unlimited shades and color choices while the two combinable beam shaping filters and frost filter allowed the creation of an unrivalled range of lighting images.