Clay Paky at the Youth Olympic Games, Singapore

	Credit: Alphonsus Chern

The fun began in August 2010 at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore. The event brought together young Olympic hopefuls aged 14 to 18 years old from 204 countries competing in 26 events.

The opening and closing ceremonies were held at the site of the Float at Marina Bay; the world's largest floating stage located in the heart of Singapore. A live audience of 27,000 plus the 3,500 athletes and an estimated two billion television viewers watched a spectacular light, video, laser, and fireworks display with the Singapore skyline serving as a backdrop.

The floating stage was surrounded by a ring of shipping containers, a reference to Singapore's prominence as South East Asia's largest harbor. In front of the containers a 53,820-sq.-ft. floating 'lake' was created; at the rear a 105'-high lighthouse, which held the cauldron for the Olympic flame. Lighting and video were positioned around the ring to create a stunning performance space. Behind it all was the Singapore skyline, which was implemented in the scenography with the addition of lighting effects, sky trackers, and fireworks on the buildings.

The lighting design for both opening and closing ceremonies was done by Koert Vermeulen, principal designer of Belgium-based ACT Lighting Design. PRG supplied technical services, rigging, and over 1,900 lighting fixtures for the ceremonies.

The unusual setting created some unique challenges, says Vermeulen: "The fact that so much of the lighting was integrated into the set meant that PRG hardly had to bring any truss - they were certainly happy about that. But it also meant that the lighting angles were very low. The best I could hope for was just 21 degrees, which meant we needed long throw instruments that could project over at least 90m [295'] and in some cases up to 190m [623']."

Many of the 600+ moving lights in the rig were Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500s and Alpha Spot HPE 1500s.

Vermeulen made his final decision after comparing 30 different fixtures from several major manufacturers. "At the shoot-out we made some surprising observations. The most powerful instrument for front lighting turned out to be the Clay Paky HPE 1500. It gave me 41,000 lx at a distance of 12m [40'] compared to 39,000 lx of its closest competitor, due to its narrower 6-degree beam - a small 5% difference in brightness, maybe, but enough to make me choose the Clay Paky because it had a tighter beam, good dimming, good CMY, and was able to push out a little more light."

Environmental considerations also played their part in the decision process: "One of my commitments to the organizing committee was to make this as green an event as possible. In order to put 800-1000 lx on the stage, we would have needed close to 600 regular 1,200W units to cover the stage. As it happened, we were able to achieve the same levels using just 160 Clay Paky Alpha 1500s - that's a reduction of more than 50% in consumption.

"In my initial account, I had anticipated using close to 1,000 moving heads to light the stage. In the end, we were able to get away with using just 600, which was a reduction of 40% in numbers.

"But perhaps the biggest surprise was the Alpha Beam 1500, which blew away the 4K unit we were testing it against at the shoot-out. The 4K light gave us 110,000 lx at 12m, while the Clay Paky measured 83,000 lx ... but when we looked at the Clay Paky beam it was straight, sharp at the edges, and very well defined. Optically, the 1,500W beam turned out to be more visible than the 4,000W beam."

The Clay Paky fixtures also found many fans among the operators and production crew for their technical reliability. Vermeulen explains, "The Alpha Beam 1500s were placed in the most challenging and vulnerable position, on top of the scenic backdrop, subject to heat, storms, rain and even lightning. Out of our entire rig, they had the fewest problems, followed second by the HPEs. I really believe that the Clay Paky Beams are the future of large-scale arena lighting. They're extremely reliable, even under the harshest conditions, and have the greatest versatility."