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Nashville’s “Big Bash” lit with Robe

“New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash” at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in Nashville, Tennessee, celebrated the new year rollover, featuring a lighting and production design created by Robert W. Peterson of Real World Lighting.

Peterson added 86 Robe iForte LTX moving lights to his lighting plot, together with 46 iFortes, 38 iSpiider LED wash beams, 20 Tarrantula large LED wash beams and 20 LEDBeam 350s, all supplied by Solotech, project managed for them by Austin Schussler and Steven Morgan with Joseph Logsdon providing account oversight for the whole project.

The five-hour CBS special concert kicked off at 7 p.m. It was directed by Sandra Restrepo and broadcast/streamed live offering a series of back-to-back performances beamed across multiple time zones live from “Music City”. It was headlined and co-hosted by Keith Urban with Rachel Smith, together with Kane Brown and Jelly Roll, with sets from Shaboozey, Brittney Spencer and others.

It’s the second year that Peterson has lit the concert. The telecast also involved pre-recorded cut-ins that were filmed in various live music clubs along Nashville’s Broadway in December (shown on the IMAG screens for those at the concert), however, as he explains, in terms of stage design, lighting rather than video was very much the dominant visual aesthetic.

Gently curving trusses at the back were divided by horizontal strips of LED, rather than a big upstage slab of screen, a decision made by “Big Bash” executive producer Robert Deaton, who wanted to unify the theme and place the focus firmly on the artists rather than any supporting video content. The main screens were the stage left and right wing IMAGs.

In addition to the trusses, a series of arched structures upstage were populated with Robe fixtures plus other lights - a nod to the many arched bridges that define and traverse Nashville’s section of the Cumberland River and serve to help define its cityscape. 

iFortes and iForte LTXs were the workhorses of the rig. They were positioned on the over-stage trusses front and back and on six self-climbing towers located in the audience together with two more towers at the FOH positions. The luminaires worked extensively throughout the event period and the show, despite high winds and rain throughout the week.

Being a celebratory broadcast, good audience lighting was critical, and “these were some of the best-looking crowd shots I’ve seen, fully bathed in the iForte LTX beams”, declares Peterson who also used iForte LTXs as rear follow spots onstage. He notes that both iFortes and iForte LTXs will be going on all his future lighting designs when possible.

The LEDBeam 350s were rigged on the arch structures and used as band back light as well as for numerous other rear-lighting and back-of-camera effects. The iSpiiders were also on the rear trusses where they provided contrast to the iFortes including lots of twinkling and sparkling pixel effects.

Onstage, Peterson used 32 of Robe’s Footsie2 Slim RGB luminaires to assist as low-profile key lighting for the left and right sides of the mainstage. It was the first time he had used the Slim version of the Footsie, an IP65-rated reduced footprint version of the original product.

Twelve of the iForte LTXs - positioned on the FOH and sides of the onstage rig - had RoboSpot cameras added and were controlled by twelve RoboSpot BaseStations with their operators located downstage right in a designated tent.

Peterson worked closely with lighting programmer Scott Cunningham on the “Big Bash” event. Cunningham also programmed and operated lighting for many of the pre-recorded venue segments, and Tal Kolchav took care of audience lighting of the TV show.

Solotech’s lighting crew chief was Tommy Smith, Dave Carr managed FOH and was the team’s RoboSpot wiz, the dimmer tech was Robert Winfree, and they worked alongside lighting techs Josh Dirks, Robbie Sheene, Hayley Cass and Jimmy Healey.

Video crew chief Marshall Blair with techs Kenny Kightlinger and William Sherman, and the screens and lighting director was Taylor Price. Lead rigger was Jake Lanier, and Gabe Boardley co-ordinated the automation elements. The entire event was managed for the City of Nashville by David Spencer and Chris Lisle.

(Photos: Jake Matthews/Alan Poizner)

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