With decades of lighting experience, including expertise in designing for large-scale shows and spectaculars, lighting and production designer Roland Greil understands what it takes to create a lasting impact.
“When lighting a magnificent, 360-degree, theatrically produced stadium ceremony, where you’re dealing with throws of 50-100 meters or more, besides lighting the stage or field of play you also want to achieve some magic and theatrical spice, and what you need there is firepower.”
For the Opening Ceremony of the Arabian Gulf Cup in Kuwait in December that firepower was provided by 173 PROTEUS BRUTUS LED wash/beam fixtures along with 49 PROTEUS EXCALIBUR beam lights, both IP65-rated moving heads that Greil turns to when he needs reliability and exceptional output for challenging outdoor events.
Using 222 moving heads to light a major event stadium ceremony may sound like a substantial number, but compared to many similar opening ceremonies, the fixture counts for the Arabian Gulf Cup was more modest. For the Asian Cup Opening Ceremony in Qatar a year earlier for example, Greil had over three times as many moving heads at his disposal.
“There are not many lights on the market where you can realise such a large-scale stadium ceremony with such a small number of luminaires,” he said, referring to the PROTEUS BRUTUS.
“Considering that the stage was in the middle of a stadium without any possibility to rig lights above it or close to it, and the field of play where all the action takes place is more than a third of the football pitch, usually you achieve the firepower you need by having 800, 1000, or even 2000 lights. Thanks to the BRUTUS, it gave us the firepower to do it with a smaller number of lights. One BRUTUS substitutes easily two other lights.”
The PROTEUS BRUTUS is a 75000-lumen-strong wash/beam FX fixture housing a 1200W peak field LED engine. Optimized for long-throw efficiency, it houses a complete FX package, and CMY colour mixing with variable CTO makes it possible to hone in on a particular shade when needed. A 4.5° to 45° zoom allows it to wash a flood of colour or narrow to a tight beam that can cut through other layers of light.
With limited fixture types at his disposal, Greil emphasized focusing the BRUTUS on specific areas, using them more as spotlights than wash beams, which is why he employed them without the diffuser lens, resulting in a more focused beam and hard-edged light.
Greil was contacted by Balich Wonder Studio (BWS), executive producer of the show, to light the biennial football competition. BWS put together a beautiful theatrical masterpiece with creative direction by Federica Goffy. The ceremony, a theatrical piece in several acts, highlighted the beauty and history of Kuwait, as well as the connection between the Arabic states. With a look to the future, it merged traditional Gulf folk arts with modern technology and concluded with a lavish celebration as a kickoff to the tournament, which commenced immediately afterwards.
The challenge of the first match taking place on the same pitch directly after the ceremony (load out had to take place in five minutes!) extremely limited lighting positions, the designer states. Given the restraints, Greil and his team were only able to make use of two lighting positions.
One position was the standard ground alignment around the perimeter of the pitch, where BRUTUS fixtures delivered sidelight and backlight from behind the signage boards with widely dispersed PROTEUS EXCALIBURs creating radiant beams and framing the entire look. The second position involved a circular array of trusses beneath the catwalk, equipped with BRUTUS fixtures not only for visual effects but also for keylighting, which was managed using an automated tracking system that Greil called a ‘saving grace’ due to limited rehearsal time.
Greil’s lighting design not only had to work for the on-site audience at Jaber International Stadium, but it also had to work for the at-home audience as the ceremony was fully broadcast. The lighting also competed with full-on floor projection, drones in the air, and an elaborate fireworks display, other reasons why firepower was so important.
Lighting gear for the Arabian Gulf Cup Opening Ceremony was supplied by Creative Technology Middle East (CTME), who Greil said did an amazing job, as they also did on a show with him in Riyadh a few weeks earlier. “Great kit, great crew, and super service,” he said. “They’ve built an excellent lighting department from the ground up over the last few years and their kit is new. The kit is one thing, but they also have the right people who are wonderful to work with.”
