Robe helps Nashville’s Big Bash go large

Nashville – well known as a vibrant and major hub for the production and live entertainment industry – staged its own superlative concert – “Jack Daniel’s New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash” – at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park to celebrate the new year rollover, featuring an impressive artist lineup and an eye-popping lighting and production design created by Robert

W. Peterson of Real World Lighting.

Bob added 86 x Robe iFORTE LTX moving lights to his lighting plot, together with 46 x iFORTES, 38 x iSpiider LED wash beams, 20 x Robe Tarrantula large LED wash beams and 20 x LEDBeam 350s, all supplied by Solotech, project managed for them by Austin Schussler and Steven Morgan with Joseph Logsdon providing excellent account oversight for the whole project.

Gently curving trusses at the back were divided by horizontal strips of LED, rather than a big upstage slab of screen, a decision made by Big Bash executive producer Robert Deaton, who wanted to unify the theme and place the focus firmly on the artists rather than any supporting video content. The main screens were the stage left and right wing IMAGs.

Bob’s challenge was to ensure that all audiences saw something unique and different, with memorable visual treatments for all artists, so lighting was designed with flexibility and multifunctionality at the core.

In addition to the trusses, a series of arched structures upstage were populated with Robe fixtures plus other lights – a nod to the many arched bridges that define and traverse Nashville’s section of the Cumberland River and serve to help define its cityscape.

iFORTES and iFORTE LTXs were the workhorses of the rig. They were positioned on the over-stage trusses front and back and on 6 self-climbing towers located in the audience together with two more towers at the FOH positions. Bob commented that the luminaires were “rock solid” and worked extensively throughout the event period and the show, despite high winds and rain throughout the week. Being a celebratory broadcast, good audience lighting was critical, and “these were some of the best-looking crowd shots I’ve seen, fully bathed in the iFORTE LTX beams,” he declared.

He also used iFORTE LTXs as rear follow spots onstage, and notes that both iFORTES and iFORTE LTXs will be going on all his future lighting designs when possible, noting that their “power and reliability” make them a perfect choice for large scale outdoor events.

The LEDBeam 350s were rigged on the arch structures and used as band back light as well as for numerous other rear-lighting and back-of-camera effects. The iSpiiders were also on the rear trusses where they provided great contrast to the iFORTES including lots of twinkling and sparkling pixel effects which looked fabulous on camera.

Onstage, Robert used 32 of Robe’s FOOTSIE2 Slim RGB luminaires to assist as low-profile key lighting for the left and right sides of the mainstage. It was the first time he had used the Slim version of the FOOTSIE – a stylish low design, IP65-rated reduced footprint version of the original product, designed to take foot-lighting into a new era – and thinks that “the functionality and size are great.”

Twelve of the iFORTE LTXs – positioned on the FOH and sides of the onstage rig–  had RoboSpot cameras added and were controlled by 12 x RoboSpot BaseStations with their operators located downstage right in a designated tent Robert worked closely with lighting programmer Scott Cunningham on the Big Bash event. Scott also programmed and operated lighting for many of the pre-recorded venue segments, and Tal Kolchav took care of audience lighting of the TV show. Solotech’s lighting crew chief was Tommy Smith, Dave Carr managed FOH and was the team’s RoboSpot wiz, the dimmer tech was Robert Winfree, and they worked alongside lighting techs Josh Dirks, Robbie Sheene, Hayley Cass and Jimmy Healey.

Video crew chief Marshall Blair with techs Kenny Kightlinger and William Sherman, and the screens – and lighting director was Taylor Price. Lead rigger was Jake Lanier, and Gabe Boardley

co-ordinated the automation elements. The entire event was managed for the City of Nashville by David Spencer and Chris Lisle.

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