LC Series Scores High on Talent Suomi

Friday, March 14, 2008 || Martin Professional

Talent Suomi is the Finnish version of the "Talent" TV franchise (America's Got Talent, Britains Got Talent), a reality television series that features amateur talent competing for a top cash prize. Filmed at Angel Studios in Helsinki, Finland started its version of the show in autumn 2007 on the Nelonen network (channel 4) with the finals aired in December.

LC screens

Lighting designer was Teemu Pietilinen of Martin distributor Electrosonic Lightinen Oy Ab of Finland. As always, the budget for lighting was not very big here, even for a big scale production. I was very pleased when the production company Fremantle Entertainment agreed to use the Martin LC Series panels that I specified for the show, says Teemu. The main idea was to make a good looking show by implementing video and lighting so we decided to place a 4 x 6 meter LC Series LED screen (12 LC 2140 panels) at the back of the stage.

Transparent possibilities

Teemu, who also programmed the LC panels, chose them for their light weight and flexibility, but it was the panels transparency that was the main factor in their choice. With LEDs encased in clear acrylic tubes, the LC screens are 60% transparent and allow light, air and effects to pass through them.

The transparency gives you so many more advantages and possibilities, he states. You can place fixtures behind the LCs or throw some smoke through them. One quite interesting point was that they look like prison bars when they are lit from the top. We werent actually going for that but it was an interesting look. And of course everybody in Finland, LDs especially, were quite interested to see how they would perform on television with its lower resolution.

The right resolution

Teemu mentions that the director of the show Juha-Matti Valtonen liked the resolution of the panels. We have of course seen those high resolution panels on TV, Teemu says, but the LC gives you such a nice effect on TV compared to them. You cannot actually see the pixels of the screen on close up shots, but instead you see much larger points, like coins, behind the performance and that is really something new. The color depth of the screen is absolutely fantastic.

The panels, which were used at only about 30% intensity, performed well throughout the show. We couldnt drive the panels with their full power, Teemu states. They really are bright! The strobe effect is powerful and quite nice as well.

Built smart

The LC Series panels are built smart for easy set-up. Assembly is by a familiar truss mount format, connecting the lightweight units together is simple and daisy chaining is a breeze. Teemu concludes, It was quite simple to set up with the LC software. The ease of installation is really amazing. It took only one hour for the guys to take the panels out of their cases, hang them on the truss and make the connections. Additionally, each LC unit contains a switch mode power supply that covers all worldwide voltages, and the genlock feature helps prevent light-flicker when using panels for TV applications.

A host of other Martin gear was used on the show including 10 MAC 2000 Profiles, 8 MAC TW1s, 6 MAC 600s, 6 MAC 300s, 6 MAC 250 Entours and 4 Atomic 3000 strobes with a pair of Jem Glaciator providing a low lying carpet of heavy fog. Qualifying rounds featured 8 MAC TW1s and 4 MAC 2000 Profiles.

Lighting programming was by Jani Toivola. All Martin gear was supplied by Finnish company Moving Light.

Lighting Equipment:
12 x Martin LC Series 2140
10 x Martin MAC 2000 Profile
8 x Martin MAC TW1
6 x Martin MAC 600
6 x Martin MAC 300
6 x Martin MAC 250 Entour
4 x Martin Atomic 3000
2 x Jem Glaciator