Renegade Unites Architecture and Entertainment Lighting for Tree of Light

	Tree of Light

Nick Gray of creative lighting and design practice Renegade combined his skills and experience in the disciplines of entertainment and architectural lighting to produce a dramatic light show for the recent Tree of Light performances, which were part of the London 2012 Festival.

Gray was asked to light a spectacular Tree set structure created by Block 9 (Gideon Berger and Steve Gallagher) for the event -- which toured to three outdoor venues in Reading, Oxford (as part of the Olympic Torch relay), and Henley.

"The Tree structure was truly impressive," Gray explains. "Big, bold and making a real statement on one hand, while also involving many intricacies and detail, all of which needed highlighting diligently and carefully."

Central to his brief for lighting the Tree was that Berger and Gallagher wanted it to appear like there was "50 tons of concrete floating in the air!"

The imposing Tree formed the backdrop to the performance which was played out on the area in front by 1,200 cast sourced from several communities. The Tree also housed the band who played a special soundtrack composed by Orlando Gough for the 45 minute work.

Gray incorporated as many LED and low energy lightsources as possible in the design in keeping with the ethos of the project, with some of the lighting actually run via bicycle power.

Another physical challenge he faced was lighting the large cast across the wide area in front of the Tree which also extended outwards both sides. In addition, there was no rehearsal or run through time, so the show was visualized extensively and pre-programmed in Renegade's WYSIWYG suite, enabling Gray and operator Paulus van Heijkant to go into the first show fully prepared with their Chamsys MagicQ console.

An assortment of lighting fixtures was utilized as Gray needed to light the different areas in very specific ways. The lighting equipment was supplied by Colour Sound Experiment.

To light the front-of-Tree main performance space two scaffolding towers were erected either side area, and rigged with Robe ROBIN 1200 LEDWashes, bars of six PARs and Martin Professional MAC 301 LED lights.

At the back of the performance areas onstage, Gray used black trussing on its side to provide side and rear lighting positions for the band and stage, onto which were rigged four Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500 moving lights, another eight MAC 301s, six Clay Paky Sharpies, four-lite Moles, and Atomic Strobes.

The nine-meter high Tree was up-lit with a collection of strategically-placed CP61 single PARs, with a Space Flower effect blasting through from the back towards the end of the show.

Around the top of the structure a series of Perspex windowed chambers all featuring various plants and greenery were illuminated with a mix of Alupar 36 Compacts, three meter Pulsar ChromaStrips, ChromaZones, and Atomic strobes. Smoke and atmospherics were pumped around this area and out into the performance space below via a Glaciators, unique hazers, and XR33 smoke machines, together with a substantial ducting system.

Lower down were the Bike Pods -- also windowed -- lit with 15W clear "golf-ball" bulb festoon lighting outlining the windows, which were self powered by the cyclists inside. The Bike Pods were additionally lit with MAC 250 Entour moving lights, fitted with ACL snouts, together with Atomic strobes and PAR cans.

Tree of Light was artistically directed by Charlie Morrissey and creatively produced by Stuart Collins.