K-Love Fan Awards Dazzle with Bandit Lites

K-Love held the seventh annual K-Love Fan Awards at the Grand Ole Opry House with a lighting package once again provided by Bandit Lites. The June 2nd festivities, hosted by Matthew West and Mandisa, are the only fan-voted awards in Christian music.

Lauren Daigle and for KING & COUNTRY each took home two awards, with Daigle earning Artist of the Year and Female Artist of the Year and for KING & COUNTRY winning Group or Duo of the Year and Song of the Year. Danny Gokey took home Male Artist of the Year. The evening also featured performances from Steven Curtis Chapman, Big Daddy Weave, Danny Gokey, Chris Tomlin, Micah Tyler, I Am They, Bethel Music's Josh Baldwin, Phil Wickham and Rend Collective.

With fourteen acts taking the stage, lighting designer Mark Carver focused on the individual performances saying, "This year I tried to give each artist on the show a unique lighting look, accentuating each artist's unique talents and feel of their material; trying to match both content and tempo while making sure it translated well on camera."

Bandit Lites supplied more than 250 lights for the stage, including High End System SolaFrame 3000, Martin MAC Auras, VL 3500 Spots, GLP X4, GLP X4S, Elation SixPar 100, Chauvet Rogue RH1 Hybrids, Claypaky B-EYE K20, Claypaky Mythos, and Solaris Flares.

Carver utilized the SolaFrame 3000s for primary back light along with gobos to add texture and depth. The B-EYEs were used for color, toning and eye candy for those watching the televised special. RH1 Hybrids and Mythos fixtures supplied beam effects and texture while MAC Auras lit the audience.

Due to the complex schedule of the popular Grand Ole Opry Theater, lighting programmer Andre Petrus and video programmer Patrick Eaton had a limited time to work with Carver to generate the best time work-flow to meet the demands of the show's schedule. The K-Love Awards production schedule started on a Tuesday, taped on Sunday, with the Opry still performing Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday night, meaning all traces of the production needed to vanish.

"This leaves very little time for programming for lighting director Mark Carver, programmer Andre Petrus and media programmer Patrick Eaton, and also leaves no time for mistakes during the installation," says Scott Moore of Go Live Productions. "Bandit's careful attention to detail and well-trained electricians makes this possible. There are a lot of long hours and unusual call times and I never had anyone lose their temper or be anything other than professional. It is Bandit's ability to put together a complicated production such as this that allows the K-LOVE Fan Awards to be a success, garnering three of the five regional Emmy awards for which it was nominated in 2018 including one for Lighting Design for Mark Carver. The system and the crew were flawless. I am extremely thankful for all they accomplished."

"The Bandit crew was awesome keeping up with the demands of this schedule," continues Carver. "Aaron, Cody, Teresa, Ty, and Chase made everything run smoothly and on schedule. Their attitude and attention to detail kept the system running flawlessly."

"Once again Bandit Lites has done a tremendous job providing lighting and support services for the KLOVE Fan Awards," adds Moore. "Account manager Michael Golden, project manager Gene Brian, master electrician Aaron Swetland, and electricians Cody Cheatham, Ty Venesiano, Terese Fensler, and Chase Strickland were all instrumental in pulling off this challenging event with a high level of professionalism and attention to detail."