Manchester UK based DBN Lighting transported their creative and technical skills, lighting and rigging equipment and crew to Barcelona to light the annual sales Conference and Gala Dinner/Awards event for a major pharmaceutical multinational.
Working for live events specialist WRG Creative Communication, DBN’s Stephen Page designed lighting for the 2 staged elements of the event. The Gala Dinner/Awards for about 1000 delegates was held in the Salle Oval (Oval Room) of The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) housed in the magnificent Palau Nacional. This was originally built for the 1929 World’s Fair and is situated in the prime location of Montjuïc Hill at the end of Avenguda de la Reina Maria Cristina.
DBN has lit the event several times before, but it was his first visit to this charismatic venue. The Salle Oval has several impressive architectural features including a large organ and a spectacular set of perimeter pillars.
The stage was built traversing the room with a set designed by Robin Thompson, which was lit with a combination of ChromaQ DB4 MkII LED battens, some positioned on the floor up-lighting, and others ensconced into the ends of the set.
In the roof, the DBN crew of 8 installed 4 x 30 metre mini-beam trusses to facilitate the hanging of lighting fixtures in all the right positions to illuminate the tables, the floor, the room and the stage.
“The challenge was in producing a spectacle for the show that would include highlighting the amazing architecture in a subtle and tasteful way as well as facilitate the functional needs of the Awards presentation and live entertainment that followed,” explains Stephen Page, adding that the primary objective was to “Produce a funky and special ambience that all the guests could enjoy throughout the evening.”
A myriad of PAR bars were used to wash the entire space in red, and then overlaid various colour and gobo looks from 56 moving lights. These were a mix of fixtures from the Clay Paky Alpha range, including Alpha Spot HPE 1200, Alpha Wash 1200, Alpha Spot HPE 575, Alpha Wash 575 TH, Alpha Spot HPE 300 and Alpha Beam 300s – all chosen to add flexibility and panache to the visual options.
The 300 series fixtures were used to light the stage from above, while the rest were concentrated on making up general floor and room looks. The ground support measured 6 metres high and had a 6 metre wide back truss and two 6 metre side wings.
The week-long Conference part of the event took place across town at the Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB), a 67,000-square metre building designed by Josep Lluís Mateo. This featured an in-the-round stage with a central catwalk, also designed by Robin Thompson. DBN’s brief was to provide a simple and utilitarian white wash and ‘house’ lighting with a little touch of extra special pizzazz.
With the latter in mind, to add colour and texture to the walls of the venue, custom gobos were created for 10 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1200 fixtures.
Stephen Page sums up, “We enjoy a fabulous working relationship with WRG, and on site we all make it happen as one integrated team. It was also great to work with project manager Cliff Zenker and producer Charlotte Oldwood on the Gala Dinner and production manager Ruth Lock on the Conference to ensure that all delegates went away with a memorable experience”.