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Clay Paky lights Benny Benassi & Friends' night
Year
2016
Lighting Designer
Jerry R. Romani
Production
Muovi la Notte - Marco Viero e Fiore
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Italy – Bologna Exhibition Centre, Benassi & Friends is a highly anticipated national dance event. It was conceived and created by Benny Benassi to coincide with the Motor Show. Benassi is one of the world’s top fifty best known DJs and has worked with Madonna, Jovanotti, the Rolling Stones, and Britney Spears. The lighting designer Jerry R. Romani chose to illuminate the space in hall 36 where the fourth edition of the event was held using Clay Paky Sharpys and A.LEDA B-EYE K10, rigged on a hanging structure consisting of straight battens placed at different heights.

“The space was huge and the battens were also used to mark out areas adjacent to the one reserved for the live show, like the dressing room area, the refreshment area, and the guest area behind the stage, where a lot of DJs were found, like Albertino, Alex Gaudino, and others.”

There was a hidden scaffolding passage between the dressing rooms and the stage, directly to the DJ mixing desk, which is an idea that has been tried and tested at several major international festivals.

The lighting designer chose the equipment and the structure for the hanging lights all by himself, and his choice was strongly influenced by the kind of show and music the lighting was designed for. A large battery of Sharpys ensured powerful light, pure colours, concentrated beams, and spectacular geometric and visual effects. 

“The Sharpy is the perfect light for this DJ’s music. The quick, controlled movements of the 36 Sharpys created mid-air sequences of dancing lights synchronized with the atmospheres and rhythms of the DJ’s mixed tracks. They are ideal because their light output makes the concentrated beams and their effects created with the variable speed rotating prism stand out even with very little smoke in the room.” 

They are nine times more powerful than their rated output and have a highly concentrated beam, which may be moved into set positions at set speeds in order to highlight and liven up the changes in the atmosphere created by the music. 

Besides being used to create dynamic graphic images of all kinds and being able to call up an entire library of pre-programmed visual effects, the 28 multicolour A.LEDA K10s, with individually controllable LEDs, helped flood the room with bright colours.