Clay Paky Hits the High Notes in TV's Keep Your Light Shining

	Keep Your Light Shining on German TV with Clay Paky.

An impressive array of Clay Paky luminaires recently took center stage, or rather nine stages, on the unique new interactive talent show, Keep Your Light Shining, which claims, "You should never hide your talent in the dark." The show debuted on German Pro7 television with lighting designer Jerry Appelt using lighting as one of the main components of this clever show.

The program showcases talented young contestants who take turns singing a song in brief intervals. It uses dramatic lighting to emphasize the importance of each singer's brief chance to impress the viewing audience. With only 15-20 seconds to sing in the spotlight, they have to do their best to have an impact before the light moves onto the next performer. At the end of the song, the audience votes to eliminate one contestant. The rounds continue until the last two face-off in a duet and a winner is declared.

The show is a concept of Turkish-based Global Agency, one of the fastest growing content distributors in the industry. Germany is the first country worldwide to air the show.

With lighting being such a key component of the show, Appelt chose mainly Clay Paky fixtures, specifying a stunning array including 54 Alpha Spot HPE 1500, 24 Alpha Spot QWO 800, 12 Alpha Profile 800, 36 Alpha Beams, 88 Sharpys, and 48 A.leda B-EYE fixtures. Lighting was supplied by MLS Magic Light + Sound in Germany.

Appelt explains, "The show has live voting for nine performances in nine shooting angles, where the lighting is dictated by the votes, not rehearsed cues. This required control from a game machine, which ran a MIDI signal through a grandMA system to cue the lights. The lights absolutely must be responsive to their cues. It's actually a pretty complex set up."

He continues, "The Profile fixtures were used for cue lighting and overall we had 45 key lighting cues for the nine stages. The Clay Paky lights always find the right position. For a show like this you have to use a light that you trust in terms of reliability and I always trust Clay Paky for this. You also need a powerful beam light so I prefer the Alpha Beam to achieve these looks."

In addition to Appelt, the crew included lighting director and spot caller, Markus Ruhnke; desk operator key lights, Dennis Muhl; desk operator show lighting, Sascha Matthes; media server operator, Sebastian Huwig; gaffer, Matthias Meyert; and crew chief lighting, Christoph Dahm.