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25,000
PEOPLE CELEBRATE THE MILLENNIUM
WITH
PREMIER SOLUTIONS.
18 months
planning came to fruition on the night of the Millennium when 25,000 people saw
a spectacular Sound & Lighting display in the market square Nottingham, provided
by PREMIER SOLUTIONS
Read the Council's
Comments
The centre of attention was the famous Nottingham "Council
House" an imposing town hall overlooking the town square with giant gothic
columns and topped by an immense bell tower and dome. PREMIER SOLUTIONS lit the 24 columns
supporting the dome with 24 SPECTRE colour mixing
floodlights and programmed a MERLIN lighting desk to
sequence and change the colour of these columns through a series of automatic
programs. Some of the programmed effects gave the appearance of the whole bell
tower rotating whilst changing colour and could be seen from all directions for
miles around.
The main lighting display was built on an enormous scale on the
balcony of the Council House, where a
SHOWCRAFT TRUSSING rig was built 8m
high by 23m long that supported 95 NJD lighting effects:
3 x VORTEX, 10 x
PREDATOR HX, 16 x
DATAMOON,
4 x RAPTOR, 4 x
QUASAR, 16 x
SPECTRE,
28 XENON 50 strobes, 6 x
RAP 250 & 8 x
SWORDS.
All of these effects
were choreographed into two synchronised shows, one "the International Show"
featured music from different countries throughout the world and the other, "the
Millennium Show" featured music through the ages, played through an
enormous sound system installed behind the lighting rig on the balcony. A
MERLIN lighting desk was used
to control the shows and automatically trigger the music CDs which were fed
through a
20kW sound system on the balcony. Smoke was provided by five
DMX smoke machines again being automatically triggered by the
MERLIN.
Additional lighting was provided by fitting the lampposts in
the square with 10 x PREDATOR
HX scanners moving custom Y2k gobos continuously through the crowd
The effect was truly spectacular and produced roars of approval from the
crowd which increased in number as the shows were ran every half hour from 5.00
pm on the night until by the show at ten minutes to Midnight the crowd had risen
to an awesome 25,000 and the Police had to seal off all roads approaching the
square to prevent further crushing. Dance music was played continuously between
the shows and created a party atmosphere throughout the whole night with people
literally "dancing in the street" with the job of DJ being performed by our own
"Andrew Gardner"..
Following the midnight hour the whole
square became the biggest disco in the country with the lighting and sound
system being used continuously to create the greatest celebration that
Nottingham had ever seen. The sight of 25,000 people doing "Agadoo" and "YMCA"
etc. was something not to be missed.
BBC Television reported the event the following day with
recorded comments from participants in the celebration of "The
greatest Party in the World" and
"No other City anywhere in the world could have put on a
better show than this". The Nottingham City Council arranged for
the two light shows to continue, every half hour, for the next three nights to
enable families to see the shows who had not been able to attend on New Years
Eve.
Here's what the Nottingham City Leisure
& Community Services had to say:
"Dear
Kevin,
I wish to express my appreciation for all
your help and hard work in staging the superb sound and light show in the Old
Market Square. I am pleased to say that the whole event ran extremely smoothly
providing enthralling and spectacular shows, not just for the many thousands who
attended on New Years Eve but those who also attended the following
nights.
The whole lighting scheme transformed the
square and the Council House and we have had numerous appreciative comments from
the public who saw the light shows and effects.
Please pass on my thanks to all of your staff, particularly in view of the late nights (or should
I say early
mornings!) and the long hours they worked to ensure everything ran smoothly,
Please also pass on my thanks to your wife Heather who was very understanding
over the hours that you have spent on the project and
installation.
Congratulations on a superb show and my
very best wishes
Yours sincerely
Bob Chaffin
Service Manager Arts, Events &
Heritage
City of Nottingham Leisure and Community
Services."
The event turned out to be such a
success that we were asked to repeat the exercise again for December 2000. This
time the Council House Christmas lights were included in the control system and
ran for the six weeks preceding the New Years Eve celebrations, when despite
arctic blizzard conditions, the event still attracted a crowd of over 15,000 on the
night.
PREMIER SOLUTIONS
are truly proud to have been chosen above all other companies to
provide this spectacular for the
City of Nottingham
which turned out to be a night we will never forget.
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