Rugby World Cup 2003

An estimated TV audience of one billion tuned in to the Opening Ceremony for Rugby World Cup 2003 where nearly 200 Martin MAC moving head fixtures turned Sydney’s Telstra Stadium into a sea of color, movement and pattern. 

With a budget of A$5 million, this was one of the most technically advanced shows ever produced in the country. The event combined culture with contemporary entertainment to salute the internationalism of rugby and the game’s values of heritage, camaraderie, passion and teamwork. "We set out to create a theatrical style ceremony using rich visual effects and a broad spectrum of musical styles," said ARU Director of Ceremonies, Andrew Walsh.

LD Mark Hammer

Lighting designer Mark Hammer was involved in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Ceremonies and Centenary of Federation celebrations where he gained valuable experience for this major event in his career.

When he saw the schedule for the event meant that there was really no time to program the lighting, and that the dress rehearsal would be the first rehearsal, Mark decided to program the show with Martin ShowDesigner (MSD). “Having used WYSIWYG on the Olympics I could see the benefit of having numbers in the console so at least you’ve got something to build off once you’re in rehearsals,” he said. “I wanted to go in with as much of the show programmed as possible. A lot of it then changed but at least we had a solid start.”

Show Technology

Early on in the design process Mark realized that he was going to need some extraordinary professional help, as well as exceptional back up, so he turned to Show Technology, the Australian distributor for Martin Professional among others. Show Technology’s Vince Haddad and Andrew Winslade supplied 24-hour technical support throughout the design process, installation, rehearsals and actual event. Show Technology offered their showroom in which to program the show, which began on September 22nd, the first rigging day of the lights in the stadium. Chameleon Touring Systems, through Show Technology, supplied the Martin equipment. Chameleon also provided the crew for the Ceremony.

ShowDesigner

“By then I knew everything was going in as planned and any problems would be minor,” explained Mark. “I decided to pre-program the show with Martin ShowDesigner. I was particularly interested in the Ethernet element. You don’t have to have converter boxes running out from the console to the system – ShowDesigner plugs straight into the console through their Ethernet. It meant we could talk to the entire system with the minimum amount of fuss.”

Jason Fripp and Paul Collison programmed the show and operated the consoles on the night. Paul has used MSD extensively since it was introduced. ”I was ready to expect a good result with ShowDesigner on this job, as I normally do, but I was astounded at how accurate it was,” he said. “It all comes down to how well drawn it is in the first place and Peter Neufeld did a fantastic job of modeling the stadium with Vectorworks. Andrew and Vince then put in all the fixtures. It meant that once we were on site, the touch ups were very limited. The amount of programming we got done off site really gave us a good indication of the looks and positions we were able to deliver.”

The off line ability of ShowDesigner was one of the most important elements in the whole design process of the Ceremony. The ability to plug the lighting consoles into the network and view in real time what the fixtures could achieve was of immeasurable help to the team.

Initially the team spent five days programming at Show Technology, followed by a few days at the venue before returning to Show Technology while the venue was in use for the NRL Grand Final. “Again, because the drawings were so accurate it was easy to flit between stadium and the off line world without too much of a drama,” added Paul. “This led to increased productivity as the few days we had to leave the venue weren’t wasted.”

Lighting control

Two lighting consoles (8 streams each) networked via Ethernet and then went directly into MSD using an Artnet driver. The control was run through Ethernet with a fibre optic main system encircling the stadium. Off that Cat5 runs broke out to ELC DMX nodes that turned the Ethernet into DMX. DMX cables were run to DMX distribution from there. Vince Haddad configured the ELC nodes on a laptop so they were already preset meaning the whole system was ready to go before set up.    

“Vince was always there when we powered up to make sure they all came on line,” commented Mark. “Vince and Raff Buono looked after all the data side - I knew that would be a huge job in itself and really it was a stand alone department. It didn’t miss a beat because they could see the nodes come online and if there was a problem it could be solved very early on. It was a reliable system that allowed us to power up the fixtures in record time.” With the lack of rehearsal time Mark admits he had to wing a few things on the night and that there were a few late changes, however he reported that the system functioned amazingly.

Large MAC rig

“I have to say that I’ve been a Vari*lite person for many years, and there’s still a place in my heart for them, but I think that Martin has really changed the whole moving light market,” said Mark. “There was an elitist element with Vari*lite and Martin have bashed that door down! They’ve made moving lights a standard in any lighting system. I really enjoy working with them especially as they’re so reliable.”

The large Martin MAC rig included 56 MAC 2000 Wash (8 with barndoors), 16 MAC 2000 Profile E, 44 MAC 2000 Profile, 20 MAC 2000 Performance, 46 MAC 600, 4 MAC 300 and 12 MAC 550. When designing the lighting for the opening ceremony, Mark had to take into account budget and power as well as the creative element. The majority of the lighting system was designed around how much power the venue could supply.

“I’d rather spend the budget on lights than cabling and generators,” Mark said. ‘It wasn’t that hard. The output on fixtures today is so much better than at the Olympics where they had a team of people to deal with power alone. The MAC 2000 Wash outputs 33,000 lumens whereas the Cyberlight Turbo used on the Olympics have only 12,500 lumens.”

MAC 2000 Performance

Mark was particularly impressed with the MAC 2000 Performance fixtures that were situated around the field of play. “The Performances were definitely my pick of the show,” he stated. “I’ve used them before and I knew that they’d do well, but I was really happy with them. They’re a fantastic light and the fact that we could shutter off on a fifty-meter throw and still get great intensity was amazing. That was the clincher in the deal.”

MAC 2000 Wash and Profile

There were three areas in the stadium from which to light the field: one up high on rigged trusses, at Level 3 and at ground level. Each of the twelve trusses held four MAC 2000 Profiles and four MAC 2000 Washes.

“All the fixtures focused on the field of play were automated because I didn’t want to lose time manually refocusing after a windy night or truss adjustment. At least with a moving light you can adjust your presets. The Washes and Profiles were great. When we first powered up the Profiles on the night of Friday September 26th, we put them into a color roll across the stadium. Andrew Walsh was at rehearsals down the road and he had to race up to the stadium to find out just what the lights were!

“The MAC 2000 Profiles did a great job highlighting certain areas whilst the Washes colored larger areas. It was good to be able to interchange between the two. If I weren’t using them on the field I’d kick them out into the audience for camera effect. Also, when you go into the tight zoom mode on the MAC 2000 Washes, the zoom lens kicks out and you get even more light output which was tremendous and we used that a lot.”

MAC 2000 Profile E

The sixteen MAC 2000’s with electronic ballasts were rigged on the Level 3 area, eight on the east side and eight on the west side, where they could shoot flat across the field. Their extra output, 23,000 lumens compared to a magnetic ballast of 19,000, was used for the specially designed gobos, named the pizza gobos and manufactured by Gobotech, which were used extensively in the last segment. Pizza gobos were also used in the MAC Performances placed on the field where they could shoot up into the stands.

“We talked about producing more gobos, like the IRB logo, but decided that the PIGI could do all of that,” said Mark. “That was fine by me as it gave me more budget!” The large Pigi element in the Ceremony meant that Mark had to work closely with Peter Milne of The Electric Canvas to make sure the lighting worked in with the large projected images.

“That’s when I decided that the Martin MAC 2000 Washes with barndoors would be ideal on the ground,” Mark told. “When the PIGI is dominant the lighting comes from the ground level and MAC 2000 Washes with barndoors prevented light spilling onto the PIGI images, whilst still picking out set elements or people. By being able to shutter them down I could avoid hitting the audience or field of play. We tried it one night without the shutters and we realized then just how good they were!”

MAC 550   

Some of the first MAC 550 fixtures off the assembly line were sent to Australia for this important event. Twelve of them were used on the roll out rugby ball shaped stage. “It’s a great little unit,” remarked Mark. “We needed something to give the stage emphasis and then kick out from there. I used the animation wheel on a few looks – when the band George were onstage we were kicking them around the field and they were hitting the audience behind too. They really are a neat little fixture, lightweight with lots of punch. I’d like to have done more with them but for this application, which was more of an effect type, they were great. The zoom capacity is really good; you can throw them out and get good coverage or kick them out for effects.”

A circle of MAC 600’s on Level 3, set out symmetrically as they were often on camera, was used for audience lighting. “Most of the photographic cameras were situated near Level 3 and so the MACs supplied a bit of a lift for them.”

For further audience lighting, Mark used a smattering of other automated lighting fixtures. Also, 24 Martin Atomic Strobes were placed in a circle on the underside of the stadium roof to deliver effective strobe chases around the venue.

MAC standard

When Mark put the equipment spec for the Ceremony out to tender he made sure that the lights requested could be used regularly in a hire department after the event. “There’s nothing worse than someone requesting a light for a major event that then just sits in the factory. There is a lot of MAC stuff coming through – the MAC 2000 Washes are good, the MAC 2000 Profiles are reliable and have been around a while. I knew companies already had some of the gear. Martin has certainly nailed a few markets and, what’s even better, is that they’ve made some. The MAC’s have become an industry standard and that’s good.”

Chameleon Touring Systems, who supplied the equipment and crew for the Ceremony, already had an extensive stock of Martin gear and were more than happy to buy some more. “The Chameleon crew were fantastic, the way the system was prepped and the way it worked impressed everybody,” said Mark. “There were a lot of long hours spent there but they were very positive, I was very impressed.”

Crew

Lighting Designer: Mark Hammer
Console programmers/operators: Jason Fripp and Paul Collison
Production Coordinator: Brad Gander
Followspot Caller: Peter Neufeld
Technical Manager: Nick Eltis
Rigging: TriPoint
Rigging Consultant: Tiny Good