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Shoot Out at Edinburgh Military Tattoo thanks to PRG Europe
The Edinburgh Tattoo is one of the world's greatest military shows, watched by some 217,000 people at Edinburgh Castle and over 100m on TV worldwide. Five hundred musicians, 200 dancers, a 150-strong all-girl Taiwanese group, 35 motorcycles and 30 horses all came together in August for the show, which was conceived in 1950 as the Army in Scotland's contribution to the Edinburgh International Festivals.
As in the past three years, PRG Europe has supplied the lighting and control, which includes over 120 VL5s, 17 City Colors and seven MAC 2000 performance spots, which carry gobos for the show sponsors, as well as a
Wholehog III.
Project manager Keith Duncan explains: "Through my company Amorphous Projects Ltd, I supply project management and crewing for the entire site electrics. We install the electrical infrastructure for emergency lighting, sound and the show lighting. I have a core crew of four on site: lighting director and operator Gerry Mott, crew chief Biz Bauermeister and lighting technicians Clive Mitchell and Cara Wiseman, who look after the day to day running of the site."
Gerry continues: "As the month goes on - as we go towards the end of summer - the evenings get darker earlier and earlier, but that means that for the first few days, it's still almost full daylight even at the end, at 10.30pm. We put VL5s along the top and bottom of the north and south seating tiers, and also light the castle wall. Meanwhile, followspots, some of which are owned by the Tattoo, are operated by students under the direction of Captain Graham Gaw of the Territorial Army."
Project manager for PRG Europe John McEvoy adds: "The Tattoo took the opportunity to test out some new followspots this year and, after I brought some up for a shoot out, Gerry and the show's managing director
Colonel Richard Hambleton settled on four new Selecon Ruas for their brightness and build quality and because they thought they would be more likely to withstand the sometimes extreme weather that the castle experiences." This year, it was decided not to put rain hoods over the VL5s, despite the ever-present threat, since the heat they give off is enough to turn the water to steam as soon as it lands on the fixture.
So far, concludes Gerry, everything has worked well - just one minor mishap, when a member of the Imps motorcycle display team crashed into one of the VL5s - "try explaining that to the insurance company!"
21st September 2007
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