Fineline Returns to Eden

	2015 Eden Session

Bristol, UK-based lighting and video rental specialist Fineline enjoyed another "Sessions" season at the Eden Project in Cornwall, providing production lighting, LED screen, trussing and rigging for the 2015 Eden Sessions -- seven high-profile concerts with a diverse line up including Elton John (two shows), Paolo Nutini, Paloma Faith, Motorhead, The Stranglers, Spandau Ballet, and Ben Howard.

The Fineline team led by Rob Sangwell, were delighted to be back at this very special location for the third consecutive year, and once again worked closely with the Sessions events' production manager Andy Cotton and his team from TAO Productions.

Using the Eden Project's eye-catching crescent shaped tensile structure as a roof for the stage, Fineline made some additional modifications to the ingenious hybrid part-flown-part-ground-supported system they have developed to facilitate the 17m wide by 11m high supertruss mother grid and stage space.

On the mother grid a flexible all-round production lighting rig was hung, designed to offer a comprehensive lighting package to acts utilizing the "house" system, with capacity to accommodate visiting productions' flown and floor-based packages smoothly and seamlessly.

This year improved draping -- incorporating around 750sqm of blacks -- added to the overall aesthetics, producing a more finished and theatrical look, with clearer definition to the stage area.

Fineline's Stu England created the house lighting scheme, flown on three 16m wide LX trusses and incorporating 18 Robe LEDWash 600s, 18 Robe 600E Spots, and 12 Robe Pointe moving lights, plus 12 bars of 6 PARs, 20 ETC Source Four profiles for specials and keys and eight 4-lite and six 8-lite Molefeys for a bit of audience interaction.

The stage floor was kept completely clear to allow easy access for guest lighting packages.

Another upstage truss was provided to fly the house LED screen, made up from around 40sqm of Lighthouse R7 LED panels, measuring 8.5m wide by 4.5m high. Fineline supplied all the necessary processing and scaling, leaving the front-end free for visiting productions to hook in their respective media servers and control systems.

A final far-upstage truss was utilized for stage blacks, cloths, and backdrops.

A large Art-Net data network was installed to ensure control was adaptable and fully accessible, with an Avolites Sapphire Touch as the house console and four Art-Net and four DMX lines running between front-of-house and stage via Fineline's ChamSys R8 Nodes. This was designed to allow incoming grandma -- and other -- desks, plus assorted video controllers, to easily be connected.

All the dimming and DMX buffering was Avolites. The network was installed by England and technician for the events was Will Dale. The Eden Project's six famous Biomes were also lit for the concerts, becoming an attractive and intriguing part of the event landscape.

They had been lit in previous years, but always as a static architectural installation. That changed this year, and for the first time visiting lighting designers could integrate this cool environmental aspect of the location into their show if desired.

This was achieved with the help of a WDMX system, with a transmitter stationed at the stage and receivers in every Biome.

The Biomes themselves -- which house thousands of plant species -- were lit with some of Fineline's new Chauvet Professional kit which included 32 IP rated LED colour changing floods -- needed because the tropical domes are around 40 degrees with 100 per cent humidity -- and have a hyperactive ant population.

The two biggest biomes also had a high-powered Dominator flower effect added to project breakup patterns on the inside of the roof. "This definitely brought a new layer of depth to the overall visual picture" commented Sangwell.

Fineline's crew -- in addition to England -- included Ruben Pinkney (crew chief), Steve Armstrong (rigger), Tim Williams (racks), and Will Dale who coordinated the incoming lighting designers and managed the network. They were joined by Peran Odgers as rigger and Sam Kenyon as lighting tech on the in and the out.

"It was another great Eden Sessions" stated Sangwell. "All the acts were very happy with the production elements, as was the Eden Project. The whole production team did a fantastic job and it was a pleasure to be involved and play our part."