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REPORT 045


WAREHOUSE PROJECT


Company: DBN Lighting Location: Manchester, UK


Manchester UK based DBN Lighting has once again supplied a spectacular production visuals design - for the first time incorporating LED surfaces in addition to lighting - plus equipment crew for one of the City’s legendary contemporary club nights, The Warehouse Project (WHP). Running every Friday and Saturday nights from September to New Year’s Eve each year, the WHP phenomenon unites the very best DJs and live artists in an energetic, vibrant dance party environment, all staged in a former air raid bunker underneath Piccadilly station, which is part of the Store Street Car Park by day. DBN’s Pete Robinson created the production design which had to be flexible and offer plenty of variety for the 14 week season. Now being well acquainted with the venue, the physical installation challenges are known quantities for the DBN crew, so the pressure comes more from the fact that all the kit has to be installed in a three hour gap between the car park closing at 7pm and the event staring at 10pm. Since WHP has been at the Store Street site, they have created over 70 rigging points, chemically fixed to the concrete shell of the venue, to accommodate décor and scaff bars as well as lighting and sound. Some are rated at 50kg and some at 500kg. This year, there are three overstage trusses to light the bands and the DJ perform- ance area, with another four trusses around the dancefloor, the longest measuring eight metres. Due to the arched shape of the ceiling, shorter trusses are used in the highest positions over the stage to maximise the headroom. Moving lights for the stage are eight Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300s and four Clay Paky Alpha Spot 575 HPEs which give plenty of options, plus 12 of the new i-Pix BB 2x2 LED units with 10˚ lenses. It’s the first time Robinson has used the new i-Pix fixtures, and he’s most im- pressed: “They definitely make a statement,” he commented, explaining that the beams are very different to a Molefey, and you can get great dimmer and colour chases going, creating some very ‘funky effects’ by inventive programming of the individually controllable pixels. Also over the stage are six ETC Source Four Juniors used for key lighting, six 4-way Moles and four Martin Professional Atomic Strobes - a staple for any dance environment. The stage floor is left clear in case visiting bands want to bring in their own pro-


ductions and to leave space for the DJ’s rolling risers, but extras from the DBN warehouse - conveniently just around the corner - are provided when the occasion calls. Robinson says that the Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700 is their favourite fixture to include in a floor specials package - the intense beam light shooting out low across the dancefloor, slicing through the smoke makes a great dramatic impact. The dancefloor lights consist of eight Clay Paky Alpha Wash 300s, 12 Martin MAC 250 Entours and four Martin Professional Atomics, and new for this year are 20 Sunstrip battens. The four dancefloor trusses run down either side of the venue, with five Sunstrips on each, arranged so interlacing patterns can be run through them or they can be used as blinders. The control desk is an Avolites Pearl Expert with a Touch Wing which gives a whole raft of additional programming features like more encoders and access to presets. Three DBN operators run lighting for the events - Tom Ralston, Nick Buckley and Chris Philips - and the standard running times are from 10pm to 6am. There is also a second room ensconced in a dark part of the venue. In here are 10 High End Trackspots, still going strong after all these years, giving a touch of old skool vibe. Also on the rig are 12 i-Pix Satellites and two Martin Professional Atom- ics, with an Avolites Pearl Tiger for control. For the first time, LED surfaces and video have been supplied as a core element of the design and visuals package, with production company Ear To The Ground keen to keep the look and feel of WHP events developing. The LED surfaces are also a new acquisition for DBN. At the back of the main stage are 50 panels of Hartwell Media P18 LED - an 18mm pitch product distributed by Studio Due. Content for this is fed directly from the Warehouse Project’s VJ mixer into a Folsom switcher and then out to the LED. In Room 2, there are seven panels of the same in a strip along the front of the DJ booth, fed with content from a Green Hippo HippoCritter, triggered by the Pearl Tiger. The 2010 WHP season has proved hugely successful with frequent sell outs, il- lustrating that there is still a huge demand for accessible, limited run events with top performers and quality production values.


www.dbn.co.uk www.mondodr.com


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