ELP let The Games begin

Following the success of the last series, celebrity sports tournament ‘The Games’ was back on Channel 4 in April.

Averaging about 3.5 million viewers per day across a week of live TV, the contestants this series were Jodie Marsh, Linda Lusardi, Charlie Dimmock, Lady Isabella Hervey, Katy Hill, Mr Gay UK, Major Charles Ingram, Pat Sharp, Romeo and Shane Lynch.

Contestants underwent a three month training programme before living together for a week in a 'reality' style house in Sheffield. During the week they competed in events across the city's sporting venues including the Don Valley Stadium, English Institute of Sport (EIS) and iceSheffield.

Four production types rolled into one

ELP, working with production company Endemol UK and lighting director Nick Collier were brought in to provide a wide range of support services for this diverse production.

Cycling, swimming, wrestling, diving, weightlifting, hurdles and gymnastics may have been the challenges faced by the celebs but as project manager Toby Dare explains the ELP crew had an equally hectic schedule over a month long production period.

"There were many different facets to this project, each requiring a different lighting approach. We had to cover live TV studio lighting across multiple venues, a huge sport OB lighting system for the Don Valley Stadium, live event stadium lighting for 18,000 punters who turned up during the course of the week and we also had to light the reality house living quarters 24 hours a day."

At the Don Valley Stadium, the biggest of the venues, Lighting Director Nick Collier's brief was to illuminate only the parts of the stadium actually in use by the contestants. So he wasn't able to turn on the stadiums flood lights. Instead Nick designed a rig based on generic systems - tungsten lights, par cans, floor cans, dinos etc

These provided greater blanket coverage than digital lights could achieve within the same budget and, with time at a premium, they did not require lengthy programming.

Nick Collier lit the reality house using an array of Photon Beard Highlights which emanate low heat and are ideal for this type of enclosed space. ELP significantly increased its stock of dimmable fluorescent fittings for this production and together with recent acquisitions of the latest in LED technology, have put themselves in poll position for more Reality TV work.

Wide ranging lighting equipment

In total ELP supplied circa 900 lamps including 160 Floor Cans, 70 x 6 lamp bars, 140 moving lights, 40 Studio beams, 40 Studio Colours, 20 city colours, an assortment of Mac 250's Mac 600's and Mac 2K's, 24 HMI (ranging from 2.5K up to 6K), 6 Dino's, 2x super troopers, 30 Photon Beard's H220, 4xHMI and 4xTungsten hand-basher kits, 10 (2 x2) Kinoflow's, and10 (4x4) Kinoflow's.

ELP also provided over 1KM of 3 phase power lock mains and over 200 metres of A Type truss. Three ELP generators supplied power for video screens, to back up the live event scanner and one to provide all site power for the English Institute of Sport venue.

Commenting on his choice of supplier LD Nick Collier remarked "ELP are unique in being able to supply this range of kit from a single source… It cuts down the hassle for me and keeps prices sensible…. I don't think anyone else would be able to supply the same broad range of fixed and moving lights, bespoke rigging services, location power and structural design expertise"

Complex on site logistics

In addition to fixing all the lighting positions, the 13 man team headed up by crew chief Joe Sherno built a bespoke covered stage system for the weight lifting tournament. This was made out of 15 inch GP truss. They also constructed three bespoke lighting masts (assembled out of modular components) and strategically positioned them around the stadium so that wide coverage was achieved.

Eight (8mx8m) canvas branding banners were hung from structures which doubled up as additional lighting supports. These structures circled the running track and provided a stunning backdrop to the track and field activities. The crew overcame the fact there was a huge potential wind loading on the canvas banners by operating a pulley system which could be raised and lowered at will.

Crew Chief Joe Sherno comments "The live 'reality' element of The Games meant that split crews ran continuously 24 hours per day and the fact that we were working across multiple venues which were open to the public meant that we were de rigging at the end of each broadcast and immediately setting up somewhere else."

Complementing his crew Sherno concludes "we had a really experienced crew on board for this job and their cross sector experience in TV and live event production meant that we weren't fazed by the size and complexity of the project. They did a fantastic job"

Crew List

* Lighting Director - Nick Collier
* Board Operators - Gavin Norris / Prid Baskerville
* Crew Chief - Joe Sherno
* Technology & Systems - Mark Gardener
* Mains - John Murray
* Rigger - Matt Kirby
* Electrician - Craig Broughton
* Site Mains - Miec Hegget
* Lighting - Stefan Marcangelo
* Lighting - Gareth Crockford
* Generators - Dave Sherman
* Structures - Richard Wythes
* Structures - Mike Sherno
* Structures - Kevin Morgan
* Structures - Sean Orchar