The first annual VH1 Rock Honors TV special paid tribute to the music and influence of some of rock’s legendary bands. The two-hour celebration of hard rock featured performances by honorees KISS, Queen, Def Leppard and Judas Priest with tribute performances by Godsmack, Foo Fighters, The All-American Rejects and Paul Rodgers. Taped at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on May 25th - and aired on the VH1 network on May 31st – that’s a lot of hard driving rock to illuminate.
Responsible for lighting design were Roy Bennett and Stan Crocker who had a plethora of Martin gear at their disposal including MAC 700 Profiles and MAC 2000 Profiles and Washes, as well as Martin U.S. distributed BigLite 4.5 Xenon lamp fixtures. Complementing the large MAC rig were a number of conventional luminaires. Digital effects also played a key visual design role and came courtesy of Martin’s Maxedia PRO media server with control from the Martin Maxxyz with Wing. Lighting supply was by Upstaging, Inc.
Roy Bennett, currently busy with the Madonna and Tim McGraw/Faith Hill tours, managed to squeeze in the time to co-design the show. Roy and Stan created unique designs for each of the band’s performances and maintained a continuous live concert feel for the TV broadcast. “I wanted to make it look like an outdoor festival stadium show,” he comments, “so we kept things moving with a rotating stage and incorporated elements like scaffolding and lots of lights. The nature of the show was rock and the whole idea was to do a classic take on the big rock show with big walls of lights, etc. We used the BigLite 4.5 as a backwash to the whole set and used some for big aerials. The MAC 2K Profiles and Washes we put in big light pods like in the old 70’s shows with spots in the center and washlights on the outside.
“But of all of Martin’s spot luminaires I like the MAC 700 Profiles the most. They are awesome lights for their size - compact and powerful – and very snappy with a bit more response to it. We used them throughout the show.”
Harmonizing digital effects from Martin’s Maxedia Digital Media Composer were an integral part of the show and ran on a variety of screens. “I remember seeing theatre horns as a kid and always thought that they were a good look so we made Plexiglas horns and backed them with video screens,” Roy explains. “Then behind the stage we had rows of Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 controlled by Maxedia pixelmapping. We also had a rear projection screen upstage of where the performance area was, as well as three large screens above the stage.”
Co-lighting designers: Roy Bennett and Stan Crocker
Programmer: Seth Robinson
Conventional operator: Ginger Corbett
Lighting crew chief: Ken Burns and Mike Hosp
Lighting technician: Ryan Tilke, Jorge Velasquez, Witt Davis,
Trucking company: Upstaging, Inc
Equipment:
112 Martin MAC 2000 Profile
44 Martin MAC 2000 Wash
12 Martin MAC 700
15 BigLite 4.5
2 Martin Maxedia PRO
2 Martin Maxxyz
1 Martin Maxxyz Wing
192 Par 64 Fixtures
172 Etc Source Four Pars
30 Etc Source Four 10°
6 Altman 1000L Fresnel
6 Altaman 650L Fresnel
15 Eight Lights
44 High End Systems Studio Color 575
7 Varilite VL 3000 Spot Luminaire
94 ColorBlast 12
10 Lycian 2500 Follow Spots
4 Strong Super Troupers
6 Mars Lights - Red
4 Reel EFX DF-50 Atmospheric Hazer
4 Reel EFX RE Fan
6 High End Systems F-100 Dmx Fogger
2 Hog 1000 Control Console
6 Martin Ether2Dmx Router
1 Dmx Datalynx
5 Etc Sensor 48 x 2.4k Dimmer Rack
1 Etc Sensor 96 x 2.4k Dimmer Rack
3 Etc Sensor 24 x 2.4k Dimmer Rack
14 Dmx DataSplit
1 Automated A/C Distribution System