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Elation’s Proteus Excalibur welcomes in 2023 on New Year’s Eve London show

London’s largest ever New Year’s Eve celebration took place at the London Eye on the River Thames, featuring a fireworks and drone display accompanied by a light show designed by Tim Routledge. His first time lighting London’s end-of-the-year celebration, Routledge chose Elation Professional’s Proteus Excalibur beam moving head as a key fixture in his design.

Routledge took on the project nearly a year ago, first assisting show producers Identity with the tender process and then working with them throughout the year to create a show that included 12,000 fireworks (from Titanium Fireworks), 400 drones (from Celestial) and over 300 lights supplied by Neg Earth Lights.

The designer, who had seen the IP-rated Proteus Excalibur at the Prolight + Sound show last May and demoed the unit in September, positioned the units inside each of the London Eye’s 32 pods. “Because the London Eye is a tourist attraction and is used every single day, we mounted the Excaliburs and a strobe unit on wheeled dollies and waited until the tourists cleared out each night, sometime around 7 p.m.”, he explains. “The Eye would continue to turn and we wheeled a dolly into each pod. We loaded all 32 pods this way.”

At the end of the night of programming, the procedure was reversed and the dollies unloaded. They repeated the process over three nights. Additional Excaliburs lined the pier in front of the 135-meter tall wheel, working with other long-throw luminaires.

More than 100,000 ticket holders plus millions around the globe took in the show and its message of love and unity. Highlights included England’s UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 win, fifty years of London Pride, a message of support to Ukraine, a tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II, and a segment honoring King Charles III. The Excaliburs were used throughout the 12-minute show, mostly in tight beam looks although Routledge says he did access the unit’s gobo wheels for the King Charles III segment.

The lighting was coordinated with the fireworks and drones in both white and multi-colored looks. Routledge says the dedication to Ukraine was especially powerful, “also because there was a pause in the fireworks at that point and the beams read really well.” He adds that the London Pride section was also a highlight as it gave him the chance to access the Excalibur’s full-spectrum color system to create “structured rainbow beams that really cut through.” Working for more than just the 12-minute show, the lights in the pods were used to build anticipation from 11 p.m. and were active for forty minutes after the show while the crowd dispersed.

Creative directors were Dan Colbourne and David Zolkwer, lighting programming was done by James Scott, Morgan Evans, and Adam Marshall.

(Photos: BBC)

www.elationlighting.com

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