Portfolio

We recently worked with the Scottish Ensemble to help produce a fantastic piece of childrens theatre. Blueparrot provided lighting design and stage managment services as well as lighting and sound equipment supply.

The new Martin Mac Aura was used to great effect as back light, whilst the Wybron Nexera provided a colourful side light. We also used the Chauvet WELL wireless LED uplighters for two effects during the show. The first was to provide a punishingly bright ray of 'moonlight' from a box as it was opened on stage, and the second to create the magical finale image of the sun rising over the ensemble, whilst changing colour from red through a rich amber and finally to bright yellow, as pictured.

This year's Bruce Festival saw Blueparrot providing all power, lighting (design and equipment supply) and sound for 'A Legendary Walk Through Time', a promenade performance telling the story of King Robert the Bruce which started in the historic grounds of Dunfermline Abbey and then went through Pittencrieff Park.

Severe weather caused a landslide in part of the park which meant over half of the route had to be changed and redesigned only 10 days before the event was to happen. However, our projects team rose to the challenge creating a new route and recalculating all the equipment required with plenty of time for the warehouse staff to prepare the kit.

At all times during the event the park had to be kept fully open to the public so Health & Safety was always at the top of the agenda, this coupled with our professional and courteous crew members on site the entire event went without a hitch.

Blueparrot provided lighting design and equipment supply for this concert style performance at the Edinburgh Playhouse.

Equipment used included: LoadGuard motor hoists, Prolyte truss, Vari-lite VL3000 spots, VL2500 spots, VL500 washes and Martin Mac 250 beams. For general cover Palco 3's, par cans with Rainbow Scrollers and our new Wybron Nexera CMY profiles were also used. Atmospheric effects were created with 2 x Cirro Strata CS6's and a JEM Glaciator X-Stream.

The whole rig was controlled using a Pearl Expert and SHoW DMX was also used to get DMX quickly to far flung corners of the theatre.

The backdrop was made from our Colour Web 250, which was double hung for twice the resolution. This was controlled via our Coolux Pandora's Box media server.

LD Jonnie Clough said "This was my first use of the Wybron Nexera CMY spots, we were a little nervous as they only have a 600W lamp and were being used on a 15m wide stage as side light - however as soon as we started plotting it became clear this was not going to be a problem as they are surprisingly punchy - we were extremely impressed!"

Blueparrot were delighted to return to Robinson College, Cambridge, for a third year of providing all technical event production services for their May Ball. This was also our first year taking on the prestigious Jesus College May Ball as well.

Both events saw us supplying all site power and lighting for catering, fairground rides, stalls and a total of 7 stages. Lighting and sound rigs were also designed, supplied and operated for 3 main stages throughout the 9 hour event. Strict noise level limits were imposed by the council which meant good sound design had to be implemented to ensure we stuck within the regulations whilst still giving the guests a night they wouldn't forget. Headliners included Professor Green and Gentleman's Dub Club. Both events also required a large amount of outdoor architectural lighting, in keeping with the themes of the balls.

The second year of Blueparrot providing our full event management service for this event also saw as take on the event in Leeds as well as Edinburgh.

Our team pulled together all aspects of the weekend-long event including the provision of marquees, an outdoor stage, all site and safety fencing, security personel, waste & recycling management,  power generation, lighting & sound as well as all the furniture and catering equipment on site.

We also provided all crew and presenters for both events as well as co-ordination between the client and Edinburgh and Leeds City Councils.

This outdoor promenade performance took place in the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh (RGBE). Blueparrot supplied all technical elements for this production including all lighting, control, staging and power distribution.

We were on site for 10 days during which time we contended with rain, gales and even snow. However, as all the equipment was rated for such use and expertly prepared by our warehouse team we did not encounter a single equipment failure.

We worked closely with RGBE staff ensuring that no damage was done to the gardens as a result of our activity. Due to the adverse weather this was of even greater importance.

Equipment used included: Avolites Art2000 48-way rack, Avolites Powercube, ETC Ion, SGM Palco's, LiteDeck staging and hundreds of generic lanterns along with kilometres of cable.

Blueparrot supplied all the lighting and video for this years ball at the Fairmont Hotel in St Andrews. Colorweb 250 was the main feature as a 15m x 4m backdrop controlled by Coolux Pandoras Box with a custom built control interface using Coolux's widget designer. This allowed for an unrivaled control of the colorweb with maximum integration into the lighting design all 'busked' live on the night.

All dimming, power and data distribution was managed by the Avolites Power Cube which saved a lot of time during set up and strike of the event by everything fitting into one small package.

Other equipment included the Cirro Strata CS6 hazer which only had to run for three 20 minute bursts to provide a perfect haze throughout the entire event, which lasted for 5 hours.

Blueparrot braved the horrendous conditions on the roads this year to ensure the Singing Kettle Christmas show could go ahead as planned at Braehead Arena.

After spending 4 hours to do the usually 1.5 hour journey we were already behind schedule before we even started. However, as a result of some fantastic teamwork we managed to get the show up and ready in record time, actually finishing earlier than in any previous year.

Blueparrot had converted the usually very generic lantern design into a rig of almost entirely moving lights. This provided the production team with 2 main benefits - the much reduced time and working at height for the focus, but just as important the lighting was capable of being so much more dynamic which is essential in a venue of this size.

This year the event moved into the Howden Park Centre in Livingston. Blueparrot supplied all the lighting, AV presentation and set for the event, which was spread across the whole of the Centre. A 3D backdrop of Colorweb 250 framed a large projection screen and the AV content was synchronised between the 2, resulting in some stunning effects. VL2500 Spots with custom gobo's added to the wow factor.

Blueparrot road tested the new Pandora's Box media server from Coolux to operate all the AV and colorweb. We were so impressed with it that it was immediately added to our stock and is available to hire.

Blueparrot provided all the lighting equipment for this musical at the prestigious Edinburgh Playhouse. The kit list included 4 x VL1000TS, 5 x VL1000AS, 6 x VL2500 Spot, 6 x VL3000 Spot, 10 x VL500 80V Wash, 12 x Rainbow scrollers, 2 x SGM Palco 5 and various generic ETC Source 4 fixtures, all controlled from an ETC Ion which Blueparrot also supplied, along with some of the set elements for the show.

Blueparrot's Managing Director, Jonnie Clough, was the lighting designer: "This was the first time I had used the VL500 wash - i found it an excellent tool and all the units were used heavily during the show. The colour mixing takes a while to get used to, but it is an absolutely awesome fixture!"