The Australian of the Year announcement has become a notable part of the annual Australia Day celebrations, televised live by the ABC from Canberra and watched by thousands.
This year’s event was lit by Paul Collison, lighting supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems, with technical direction by 4412 and Out There Productions.
The stage featured thirty Martin Professional MAC Aura XB which PC loves using as camera candy in these situations.
“The MAC Auras are so versatile,” he said. “By using the Aura feature during the presentation, they provided some nice relief from straight lines of the flat set without adding light to the stage. With the performances, the almighty punch of the Aura XBs helped us give the daylight performances some dynamic presence. The Auras really are my go to light for these kind of situations.”
Also on stage were ShowPro HEX LED Pars, Clay Paky B-Eye K20’s, Sunstrips and Clay Paky Sharpy Wash, with more Sharpy Wash on the camera towers.
“The Sharpy Wash did a stellar job of lighting the stage and VIP presentation areas,” commented PC. “Unfortunately what they couldn’t do, was penetrate the umbrellas of the presenters who seemed oblivious to the fact their faces were shadowed as rain soaked the event!”
PC used twelve Martin MAC Viper Profiles to throw 150m to Parliament House lifting the presence of the building in the background and that worked beautifully.
As usual control was done by a MA Lighting International grandMA2 light. PC used the new web-based remote extensively on his iPhone to remote focus the presentation spots. With a small lighting crew, this freed a person up from the console and made daylight updates quick and easy.
