Christie Lites Delivers Lighting and Crew for Cisco Live 2020

	The Christie Lites team supplied more than 850 fixtures and a crew of 27 experts to the event. Photo: Ben Phillips Photography

Leading technology experts from around the world descended on Barcelona for the annual Cisco Live EMEA conference in January to learn, share, and drive the digital future.

For the third consecutive year, Christie Lites UK was commissioned by production company GPJ to design, supply, and crew a lighting solution for the conference's main stage and party area.

It is a huge project, with Christie Lites UK working alongside production managers, technical managers, and lighting designers to design a lighting and control package. This year, the team specified more than 850 fixtures and a crew of 27 experts, as thought leaders shared visions and performers including legendary musician Nile Rodgers entertained the crowds.

GPJ's head of technical production, Mark Bannister, worked alongside GPJ production managers John Carss for the main plenary and Isobel Webb and Dave Whitty for the party area to realize the project. Christie Lites UK account rep Andy Strachan managed the delivery of the lighting solution to the event.

"GPJ US and Christie Lites have built up a good relationship over the last decade in the States, and we were keen to develop that with Christie Lites UK, and that is a decision that has delivered huge benefits over the last three years of working together on Cisco Live," says Bannister. "The kit is well prepped and the crew work seamlessly with the other departments on site. Simon Grant's design and Christie Lites' delivery in the party area was breathtaking, and helped the team deliver the best-ever Cisco Live party -- as rated by the attendees!"

GPJ's Webb continues, "Christie Lites was fully involved in the design, right from the beginning, ready with creative options that suited both our needs and our budget. The Christie team is a delight to work with in pre-production and on site, with a positive attitude and genuine desire to create the smoothest build and best show possible. Their pre-production work was also impressive -- in fact their pre-rigging work saved an entire truck's-worth of space, as well as a lot of time on site."

Lighting designer Grant kick-started design concepts in response to the original brief from GPJ. Grant focused on the party area, with 20 lighting crew.

"I was privileged to be asked to light the party area show this year, and working with Andy and the team at Christie Lites was a dream," says Grant. "We delivered this show on budget, using workhorse fixtures from Christie Lites' Coventry shop, which really helped bring this show together. Seamless transition between LD and crew boss Tony Fagan made for a smooth ride on site and a happy crew."

Grant used two of Christie Lites' MA Lighting grandMA3 consoles networked together to control the main stage and the party space lighting. On the main stage, Christie Lites supplied a package of Martin by Harman MAC Viper Profile, MAC Viper Wash DX, GLP JDC1, GLP X4 Bar 20, and "a boat load" of Martin VDO Sceptron 10.

In the party space, fixtures specified included 170 VDO Sceptron, GLP JDC1 and Bar 20s, Martin MAC Viper fixtures including performance, profile, and wash DX models, along with Martin's MAC Aura XB and MAC Encore Performance fixtures to light up the central bar, and a spattering of Prolights Eclipse FS for specials.

"The theme for the party was 'music through the decades'," Grant continues. "I took block colors as a simple way to deliver each decade. Inverted truss beams above the stage created a roof to the stage that raked up high above the audience. Using only four fixtures for the main stage kept the looks clean and simple."

Webb continues, "Creating a rock and roll show for a corporate client inside a venue that is not built for purpose had its challenges. We were working with a very large space, the largest footprint for this party to date, without much ceiling height, a fair amount of unriggable areas and some restrictions on build times."

"Christies Lites worked around all of this, while still delivering ahead of schedule, and their fixture package added the 'wow factor' to the live performances, which I know was appreciated by the bands, attendees and client alike."

Strachan concludes, "We were thrilled to be asked to work on Cisco Live again this year -- it is a hugely enjoyable project. The repeat business is a testament to the fact that Christie Lites is not only able to deliver big projects in Continental Europe, on-time and on-budget, but also to our unrivalled attention to detail and highest standard of gear and crew. While all that is important, it makes it very easy to deliver something of this standard when you have such a great team working alongside such a well-organized GPJ team, who have such a great vision for this incredible event!"