Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover Launches with Bandit

	Sports Illustrated chose Music City to launch the 2015 Swimsuit edition.

While there were talks of a winter storm brewing for Nashville, the city was all about bikinis and great music as Sports Illustrated chose Music City to launch the 2015 Swimsuit edition. The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau hosted the event where lighting designer John Lucksinger and production manager Chris Lisle worked with Bandit Lites to provide lighting for the A-List event dubbed as "Swimville."

Swimville was held on Broadway with six bands performing a free show each day on Wednesday and Thursday. More than 15,000 people came out on the first day alone to see performances by Will Hogue, The Weeks, and Chris Young, and also to meet this year's SI models who were available to sign autographs and take photos. Bandit provided gear for the grand entrance along with a lighting package for the performances.

Later, the red carpet was rolled out in front of The Schermerhorn Symphony Hall where Nashville's rock star royalty, Kings of Leon, were slated to perform. It was there that super models Chrissy Teigan, Lilly Aldridge, and SI swimsuit cover model Hannah Davis stopped to give televised interviews under a 20' circle made from 12" truss on 16' legs with MAC Auras for key light.

"The Aura is a great fixture," Lucksinger said. "Nice even field with a big zoom. I mainly took the light, tipped it up, zoomed it all the way out, and it gave a great flood over the 16' round stage. Anywhere the people went there was front, side, and back light. It worked really well. There were also some Coemar LED pars in the truss. I went with Coemar because they are so small they fit inside of 12" truss."

Opposite of the interview "home base" was the "step and repeat" area, where everyone comes in and poses for photos, in addition to another smaller interview area. There Lucksinger used ETC Source 4 lekos for key light.

"I put them on three different 14' tall pipes in order to get over the top of everyone walking around," he explained. "I also had to light the surrounding building and area. For that I went with GRN wash lights. Those are great because the can be on their own: Just find some power and find a color in the menu; there is no need for data runs everywhere."

Challenges for the event came down to logistics, as production manager Lisle received word for the red carpet at the last minute. With no time to prep or scope the site, Lucksinger and his crew had to put up a truss on towers in Nashville's blustery cold weather with uneven, rocky terrain.

"Bandit and John both did an amazing job at pulling together the gear and people needed for the event on short notice," said Lisle. "I can always count on Bandit to deliver a fantastic product with great people every time!"

"Ultimately, my favorite part was seeing it all come together the way I thought it would," Lucksinger said. "It looked really good on TV, and the client was very happy, which in the end is what we do this for: to make the client happy. There were a lot of little things that had to change, and my crew, Craig Richter and Julie Cox handled everything with exceptional attitude. Also, I would like to thank Chris Lisle for the call to come work on this project. It was a great time."