“Stars on Ice – by and with Katarina Witt”

Lighting designer Jerry Appelt had over 470 MAC luminaires at his disposal for the German show “Stars auf Eis – von und mit Katarina Witt” (Stars on Ice – by and with Katarina Witt), a successful series of seven ice skating shows broadcast this fall on German TV channel ProSieben.

Hosted by former World and Olympic figure skating champion Katarina Witt, the show featured professional skaters teamed with prominent film, sport or TV celebrities to form an ice dancing pair, a sort of on ice “Dancing with the Stars.”

Shot beneath a purpose built tent construction at Europa Park in the city of Rust, “Stars on Ice” was broadcast live each week to a national audience eagerly waiting to see what pair would be eliminated next. The final show aired at the end of November and was such a success that plans are already being made for next year.

German production company PROCON Multimedia AG supplied a plethora of MAC’s: 140 MAC 700 Washes, 94 MAC 2000 Profiles, 14 MAC Performances, 100 MAC 600 washlights, 48 MAC 500 profile spots, 64 MAC 250 Washes and 12 of the new MAC TW1 Tungsten washlights.

“The rig was only moving lights – no conventionals,” Jerry Appelt explains. “With ice skating you can’t be sure that a skater will be exactly at one position so it is difficult to focus specific positions. With moving lights it was possible to easily refocus. The MAC 700s were more or less the workhorses on the show – the colors are quite good.”

Jerry used the 140 MAC 700’s to light the skating area as well as the audience with the 12 MAC TW1’s used to light band musicians who played in between skating performances. “The mixture between the 700 and the TW1 was good. You can always adjust the color temperature of the MAC 700 and use it as a type of tungsten light setup. You can also do that with the TW1 but then you miss the daylight look you need for the rich colors. The rich colors you can get with the 700s and we had the TW1’s for some moderation points. If we moved this point we could focus with the MAC 700 which was really helpful.

“Another thing about the 700’s that is important to mention is that they are really reliable. We ran the setup for seven weeks and with this quantity of 700’s – all the problems you have in a building like this, with the air humidity, the ice, the temperature changes – we didn’t have any fixtures fail which was wonderful.”