Impressions specified for celebrity BB final

Once again shot at the famous Big Brother house in the grounds of Elstree Studios — where it has resided since 2002 — the show ran for 22 days, and was watched by around 6.4 million viewers.

When presenter Davina McCall announced Ulrika Jonsson as the eventual winner on Final night, it was from the middle of a festival-style Orbit stage, spectacularly lit by LD Darryl Noad.

The experienced theatre and TV lighting designer, a veteran of Big Brother shows for the past four years, ensured that the finale received the fanfare it deserved with an inspired lighting set in which 22 x GLP Impressions provided a rapid colour-change pan within the structure.

This was the first time Noad had used the Impressions (which included two of the new larger XL versions) — and it certainly won’t be the last.

Returning to TV lighting hire specialists Panalux after a break of two years, the lighting director was urged to try out the Impressions.

He admits he withheld any conceptual ideas until after the visit. “It was easier to see what equipment Panalux had first — and I was impressed but what I saw.”

After carrying out brightness tests the Impressions quickly took a pivotal place in the lighting plot, surrounded by moving lights, for back- and front-lighting the stage (and projecting gobo patterns onto the wall of the house), while followspots and Source 4’s were used to highlight the faces.

“The idea was to make the set look as glitzy as possible bearing in mind the weather down at Elstree can be horrific,” he says. “You look for equipment you know will be robust — and the GLP’s looked fairly chunky. There’s not much to go wrong, and they are ridiculously bright!” This was a particular advantage, he said, since it was impossible to use smoke to accentuate the beam path.

Since the luminaires were rigged inside the truss, they were protected from all the elements. “The prevailing wind at Elstree blows away from the stage so there was no danger of any moisture getting in,” he confirmed.

The Impressions were fixed around the ‘eyelash’ of the Orbit stage using Super Clamps. “They were incorporated into the make-up of the ‘eyebrow’ — rigged on the straight sections of truss from which the semi-circle was constructed.”

Over the last couple of years Darryl has used an alternative LED light source to create the same effect, “but the Impression added a lot more punch,” he admits.

Controlling the lighting from a GrandMA, he used the fixture’s rapid 660° pan and 300° tilt to great effect, rotating them into the truss and straight out of the stage to create mighty beam effects.

“They just move so quickly … they are the fastest heads I have used,” he said. “Because the LED element is quite compact there is not a lot of torque on the motors, so they can move quicker.” In actual fact, thanks to the advanced stepper motors, a full pan can be carried out in just 2 seconds (and the tilt one-second).

With 90 Luxeon high-performance LED’s (30 x RGB) in each Impression head, the LD was delighted by the fixture’s high brightness, and the impact this created.

Darryl next plans to use the Impressions as a wall wash in a studio environment. Also, thanks to the fixture’s interchangeable lens carrier, he hopes to use the 40° beam option to create the equivalent of a cyc light.