Associate Lighting Designer, Lead Rigger, Programmer and Operator

ADJ Plasa 2023

After hearing about the Plasa Exhibitions for years leading into the production industry I was thrilled to be able to join ADJ working with their new products and creating their Stand Design, Building the Structures, Programming the Lighting Shows and Operating & giving Demonstrations during the show days. I also enjoy meeting all the event attendees, other stand exhibitors and now have completed this project annually, so I get to see familiar faces.

Design

In early July I was approached by AVS to join them for their Plasa stand to oversee the lighting and technical aspects of the stand. I stated by working with Kris Dawber (Company Director) and Andy Howarth (Company Director) to arrange the size, power and arrangement of the stand so I could implement a lighting structure around the tables and bar. Once I had these details we started looking at different was we could fly, position or layout a truss system which would look appealing but also not hinder the furniture, I knew at this point that it would have to be seamless to the walls and where I could position the power distributor and console. After working through different ideas of having single vertical truss, horizontal truss or diamond truss we decided to go with a diamond truss that had extend 1m truss of each corner. We started by drawing, 3D visualizing and then building it in the warehouse so we could see the exact scale and how it could be built. Andy then had the idea to powder coat it orange which is AVS's colour. Now we had the focal point of the stand we then decided to add a video screen into the internal diamond of the structure, for this we worked with an engineer to build custom brackets that the screen would attach to the truss from.

Get In

We set off to the Olympia London very early in the morning so we would arrive promptly for our load in slot. We were one of the first companies to arrive as our stand was at the front and the loading bay was at the back of the venue, this meant we could easily transport our flight cases through the venue. Andy had taken the lead to prep and load the vans in a particular way so he would organize which van was to be unloaded first, second and third and what was needed first. This kept us building the stand at a good speed as the equipment and tools were given to us in the order we needed them. Firstly we built the black truss structure which would frame our stand, then the orange truss (diamonds), now we installed the video screen into the centres while it was on the ground, then we rigged it and flew it into place so I could begin adding the lighting, then I powered and data the fixtures, video panels and the other appliances on the stand. Once everything was working I could start to DMX address, run video screen tests and focus lights. Other crew then added the black drapes around the stand, the chairs and tables and fitted the bar. This get in was a really good opportunity for me to see other professional crew working in a fast pace environment as the staff for many of the large stands were made up of the brand/company managers, directors and head technicians/crew. This was interesting to see as they were very fast to install their stand and the unloading of their trucks was done at a precise rate. I felt that I have learnt how a large scale get in should be completed and what professional attitude and health and safety knowledge is needed to have on a very busy and active site.

Programming/Event Operation

Once all the fixture were powered and data I could begin patching the lights into my console which was a Avolites Quartz. I used all four universes to distribute the data easily to the lights. I ran a universe to each orange truss and then a universe per a side of the black truss. I used all the universes because I needed to put the fixtures into their fullest channel mode because the aim of the event was to show new or existing clients what the fixtures can do at their fullest. I began programming by creating my overall looks on the stand, pixel mapping the orange trusses and creating interested effects across the stand. I then added a playback per a lighting fixture that was on show. This was so when a costumer was looking at a particular fixture I could easily remove it from the overall effect and present different attributes to the client manually. I had a key role on the stand throughout the three days showing, talking and giving advice and my experiences with certain fixtures. This helped many clients understand how I have used these ADJ products and my past designs.

My Time At Plasa

I took the quiet times on our stand to go and look at the other brands and companies to see their new fixtures and consoles. I spoke to many people from other stands about lighting, sound, video and the industry itself. I also watch a talk with Tim Routledge about how he lit Eurovision 2023 and I watched a talk about using Mic's in theatre. While at Plasa I also looked into automation with Tait, I used a Robo Spot and FollowMe system and Practiced my skills on a MA3, Allen & Heath DLive & Avantis, Midas HD96 and a range of Digico's. I also learnt about many new appliances for Data distribution, rigging handwear and digital power systems.

Get Out

While the Get In took two days to complete we managed to break down and load our equipment in three hours. We started planning the get out roles in the afternoon on the last day so everyone understood what they would be working on and what vans needed to be brought in and when. I worked de-rigging the lighting fixtures, video wall and truss, while others ran flight cases, coiled cable and removed the furniture we had on our stand. Once all the vans were packed we could leave the venue and headed for home.

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