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Essential in the Red for Poppy Appeal 2004
The lighting scheme was designed by Rick Hussey, who works regularly with Essential on all types of projects. It was co-ordinated for Essential by Martin Lubach and site managed by Barry Tofield. Overall production manager was Roger Oakley working for event producers The Bank. Oakley dealt with 16 regulatory bodies including MI5 and MI6 to get the necessary clearance to stage the event!
A total of 28 MAC 2k washes were used to light the three bridges, complete with assorted lenses to optimise the beam spread. The lights - all cased in weatherproof domes - were located at various pavement vantage points, which were severely limited due to access and health and safety issues. However, with considerable lateral thinking and a bit of ingenuity, enough points were found to produce dramatic, saturated red glows across the bridges.
Waterloo Bridge produced the densest lighting effect as its Portland Stone construction absorbed the light beautifully. Westminster proved the most challenging, due to its dark green colour, plus additional restrictions preventing any luminaires being sited on the land in front of County Hall. This meant it had to be lit entirely from lights positioned on the Westminster Millennium Pier pontoon.
The Space Cannons were spread out along both sides of the river, including three on the Millennium Pier and one on the London Eye pontoon.
Lighting on the night was operated by Jason Harvey using a Jands Hog 1000, positioned on Millennium Pier. Data control to the luminaires was a mix of wired and radio DMX - using the Avolites eDMX system.
eDMX links were beamed to all lighting across the river and to the East of the control position, while the MACs lighting Westminster Bridge and the three Space Cannons on Millennium Pier itself were wired.
Fixtures were powered by four 60 KVA generators supplied by Agrekko, positioned underneath Hungerford and Waterloo Bridges. The Westminster Bridge fixtures were fed from hard power off Millennium Pier, and the Space Cannon on the London Eye pontoon was also powered locally.
Essential’s crew of 12 loaded in on the Tuesday for the Thursday evening’s event, and a lighting team of nine remained on site throughout to baby-sit gear in each location.
The scrolling poppies projection on to the Shell building by large format projection specialists E\T\C UK was also part of the same event.
The climax was the flight of two World War II Dakota DC3 aircraft at low altitude up the river, dropping three million poppy petals between Waterloo and Westminster Bridges. Linked to the same event – and also co-ordinated by Rick Hussey as an integral part of the lighting scheme – the four bridges East of Waterloo – London, Southwark, Blackfriars and Tower Bridge – were all coloured red and specially highlighted for the occasion – utilising their existing architectural and internal lighting.
22nd November 2004
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