Home to the world’s tallest building, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is accustomed
to doing things big. The extensive festivities marking the 44th UAE National Day
were no exception. The official National Day event at Zayed Sports City in Abu
Dhabi was a high-end production featuring grandMA2 consoles.
UAE National Day commemorated the Emirates’ 44-year union with fireworks,
concerts, heritage attractions, regattas, and art and theatre festivals across the
Emirates. The official National Day show at Zayed Sports City celebrated the spirit
of the union and the Emirates’ national pride.
Produced by Five Current with lighting and video design by 4U2C, the show flashed
back to the creation of the UAE by the region’s seven kings. “The main challenge
was the size of the stage – 300 feet wide,’ notes Karl Gaudreau, associate lighting
designer at 4U2C, a Montreal-based one-stop shop that meets the creative and
production needs of multimedia events. “We had to create a desert look through
projection mapping with 100 video projectors. And we had to light the stage and the
stadium.’
To accomplish that 4U2C relied on 250 x Clay Paky Mythos fixtures, 155 x Clay Paky
Sharpy Spot and 60 x Clay Paky Sharpy Wash. For lighting control, 4U2C had four
active and two back up grandMA2 full-size on hand. A grandMA2 light acted as the
stage desk with an MA on PC command wing as the tech desk; twelve MA NPUs
(Network Processing Units) were deployed. “We worked with the four grandMA2
full-size consoles at the same time,’ explains Gaudreau. “With 102 DMX out,
grandMA2 was really the best tool for us.’
Gaudreau adds that, “Alex Monas, our contact from A.C.T Lighting Canada, offered
super support during the project.’ At 4U2C Yves Aucoin was visual director for light
and video for the show, and Eric Belanger and Pierre St-Mars were the
programmers. Tom Davis was the lighting project manager for Five Current.
Solotech and Dushow were the rental providers with Richard Lachance.
