The laser crew began work
installing the 4 projection systems on Friday evening. The sound
and lighting had already been installed earlier in the week though
the sound crew was still busy testing and debugging the systems
and the lighting crew was busy programming the lighting effects
for the stage and the dance lighting.
View of the dance area during
set-up - click on the picture or HERE
to see a full size image.
View from the main stage looking out towards the dance
floor.
This year's event was
held in the "Big O" (Olympic Stadium) in Montreal, a
vast and cavernous space which is home to the Montreal Expos
baseball team. The front two thirds of the floor of the stadium
was set up for dancing, while the back third held a chill-out
room, a museum, vendors, food services, picnic tables, an
inflatable obstacle course and a massage area.
AJ Sets up the power
distribution for one of the tandem pair laser projection systems
Hundreds of volunteers blew up thousands of balloons for
the decor. In the picture above, the balloons are being taped to
almost invisible threads to form giant arches that floated above
the dance floor. The arches were released allowing the balloons to
float straight up at about 4 in the morning.
Top: Lighting designer programs the effects for the dance
lighting area. One 512 channel board was used just for stage
lighting while two additional 512 channel boards were used for the
dance lighting. Bottom: One of the control consoles and the four
DataFlash controllers at the main lighting control position.
One of the four smoke machine positions. Each position
was capable of outputting up to 10,000 cubic foot per minute of
haze into a high pressure fan used to distribute the haze into the
space!
Video playback and control equipment used to feed the two
"mini jumbotron" type video screens that flanked the
stage. A high power projector was also mounted atop the
scaffolding of one of the islands and projected onto a white
backdrop on the stage for the "lost in space" number.
The main sound control console. The mics for the live
performers, track playback, live PA and the signal from the DJ
(located just in front of this console) are all fed through this
board into the massive sound system which used real time computer
equalisation to obtain a very LOUD but tight and clean sound.
Part of the amp racks behind one of the eight speaker
stack arrays that ringed the dance floor.
Top: Derek and Al mount two of Laser F/X's lasers into
one of the projection systems. Bottom: Al, Derek and AJ carefully
move a 15 watt white-light laser into position with a hydraulic
lift truck.
Rehearsing the stage show with the
BBCM dancers. Note the lighting centerpiece, an array of
TechnoBeams that did "Pink Floyd" style lighting
effects.
