As part of the Opening Ceremony of the 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture in Greece, the Old Iris Factory opened for the first time its doors to the public to welcome a local legendary group of the 90’s. Stereo Nova returned on stage for an iconic reunion and unique live performance. The band appointed Philip Hills and his company, The Show Solution (TSS) to undertake the lighting & stage design for the show.
Early in the process Philip and his team visited the site, in order to take photos and measurements of the old building. This data was used to create an accurate model in Capture, mixing forms and materials with real photo textures from the actual venue. The next step was to position the roof truss system in front of the building and design the stage platform, which went through three iterations before arriving at the final platform design seen.
Then it was time to select the lighting fixtures and this is where Capture’s accuracy of beam angle and light output replication in the live view proved to be an invaluable tool for the LD. In Philip’s own words:
“It was fairly simple to select a powerful spot fixture for inside the building that needed to throw 30 metres to reach the audience area, wide floods to colour large surfaces from up close and bright, wide angled spots for gobo projection to go in the roof above the band. These units were respectively Robe BMFL Beam Wash, Chauvet Color Strike M and Clay Paky Arolla MP.”
Once everything was setup and patched in Capture, a Chamys MagicQ Stadium 500M was added to the system. The patch transferred directly from Capture to the console hassle free over CITP.
For the final stage of the preparation phase, PA Solutions, our authorized reseller and training centre in Athens provided the Stadium console and the previz studio for a week of programming before moving to the TSS previz facility for another week, and then finally relocating to the venue the day before the show.
On the 4th of February 2023 in this small industrial city in the west of Athens, the yard of the abandoned Iris factory was filled with enthusiastic fans, eager to experience the electronic sound and poetic lyrics of this innovative band.
Event: Stereo Nova live at the Opening Ceremony of the 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture
Venue: Iris Factory, Elefsina, Greece
Lighting & Stage Design: Philip Hills
Lighting Programming: Alex Hills
Capture Previz Facilities: PA Solutions & TSS
Chamsys console: PA Solutions
Lighting Equipment & Roof: UTG
Concert Photography: Pavlos Mavridis
Many thanks to Philip Hills from TSS for responding to our showcase reward program and for sharing his process with us.