Germany's The Dome Gets GLPs Wash One and impression 90

German lighting designer Nik Evers has been using GLP's impression Wash One and impression 90 for Germanys most popular music show on TV.

The Dome has become known as Germanys' most popular music show on TV. Since 1997, four times a year The Dome brings together pop stars and DJ's from locations all across Germany. The latest show was produced at the Colosseum, part of a former mining plant and now a 3,000 seat theatre right in the center of Essen. The billing included artists such as Amy McDonald, Alex Clare, Marc Foster, Dante Thomas, and popular Irish duo Jedward.

What makes The Dome quite different from other music TV productions is the way Evers and the others on the creative team approach the different artists. "We give each artist an individual look, in regard to lights, set, mood, and even props. Ahead of the show, we get in contact with the artists and their management to get their requirements for the show and work to adapt these ideas and looks into the show," Evers explained.

The overall look and feel of the show is used to differentiate The Dome from other music shows. Evers continued, "We try to make it look and feel like a real concert, especially on the screens. It's more than just shooting a band on stage, it's very much about feelings, mood, and atmosphere that we try to deliver for both the TV audience and those enjoying the show in the venue."

A key part of Evers' lighting design is the location itself. With the Colosseum as a former industrial facility, there are many options for highlighting the architectural elements of the building. "For that kind of lighting, I prefer low light, but with setting accents on the architecture," Evers states. Incorporating GLP into his design, Evers uses 44 of their impression 90 fixture. "They are lightweight, handy and due to the baseless design, they are nice to look at," Evers said of the impressions. "In a location like the Colosseum, this type of fixture just makes the day, as setup times are short and some hanging positions that I'd like to use are hard to reach," he added.

On stage itself, Evers uses some more gear from GLP - 12 of the new impression Wash One's are serving as floor lights right in front of the giant screen. "Some new, different colors and some new and different ways of painting with light was my idea behind using the Wash One fixture," Evers explains. "Due to the LED RGB engine, color mixing is incomparable to conventional fixtures -- and that's what makes the Wash One my first choice. Not only the colors are different, but also the sheer speed this fixture delivers. Color changes are on a blink of an eye, just as fast as if you were using strobe lights." he added.

Beyond Evers himself, the Wash One also drew compliments from the show producer and the camera crew because of the total lack of flare. "We use them for hard shots right overhead the cameras and there is not a single flare light messing up the cameras."