© 2011 The official bi-monthly publication for wysiwyg Members 9

ISSUE 34 /Jan 2011

wysiwyg gets repeat invitation for the 2010 Nobel Prize Banquet

On 10 Dec 2010, wysiwyg once again rubbed elbows with royalty at one of the highest profile events in the world – The Nobel Prize Banquet. Held since 1934 in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall annually on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, the banquet follows the esteemed Nobel Prize Awards. The event is attended by the King and Queen of Sweden, and the other members of the Royal Family, plus approximately 1300 guests, including Nobel Laureates, politicians, dignitaries and other VIPs, as well as seen by the viewing audience of a High Definition television broadcast by Swedish Television (SVT).

Lighting Designer Per Sundin of Stockholm-based Sundin Design-ers AB has been in charge of lighting the event for the past 14 years since the time when he worked for SVT. Sundin and Pro-duction Manager Ola Melzig of M & M Production Management, also out of Stockholm, have worked together on the event several times, so they know the building and set up routine well.

For the Nobel Banquet, the layout of the tables, chairs and place settings is exactly the same every year, so in 2008, for the first time, Melzig decided to create the banquet setup in Vivien, down to the famous red brick walls and even plates and glasses. Be-cause Sundin does his lighting design in wysiwyg, the files worked together seamlessly and made the virtual drawings incredibly re-alistic. Since then, Sundin has continued to use the original Vivien file and incorporates it into his annual wysiwyg design perfectly. He has no hesitation using the software combination again. After all, why reinvent the wheel?

“wysiwyg and Vivien are incredibly useful concept tools,” said Melzig, “This banquet has been taking place in this same location

for 75 years and the drawings have always been on paper. Now that we have a 3D model, everyone in the planning process can visualize their ideas accurately in a much faster and efficient way. The only things that change each year are the flowers, entertain-ment and lighting, so imagine how helpful it is to share this file.”

The positioning of the lighting set up itself does not change drasti-cally from year to year, due to the limited number of places where fixtures can be hung. The 85-year-old Stockholm City Hall was not built with modern technology in mind (nor any rigging points), plus the Nobel Foundation has very strict regulations about un-necessary cabling and other elements that can make the Hall less aesthetically pleasing. But there are occasional changes to the equipment list, which makes having an updated wysiwyg Library so important.

This was the first year for the Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500 fix-tures to make an appearance, and Sundin used them on an unex-pected surface – the massive ceiling of the Blue Hall. In the past, video content has been projected onto the 40m×32m (131’×105’) space, but this year, the Alpha Profile 1500 fixtures took the place of the projectors, sending gobo projections overhead from the convenient location of the 2nd floor balcony.

The original idea came by way of architect Ragnar Östberg while the building was being constructed between 1911 and 1923. He liked the way the water outside the building reflected up onto the ceiling through the high windows and decided to leave it plain white to capture that look. During the banquet, however, it is too dark outside to reflect anything, so Sundin’s design employs other means to retain that feel while also taking advantage of the largest

© 2011 The official bi-monthly publication for wysiwyg Members 10

ISSUE 34 /Jan 2011

blank canvas in the room. Melzig explained, “At first we thought we were getting four Alpha Profiles, which actually would have been adequate as they have incredible brightness and a good beam size. We ended up getting eight, which was even better. We were able to use them for the far wall as well – behind the main stage of the performances. Per was able to quickly add them to his wysiwyg design and use their standard gobos to project onto the wall during one of the big performances. It was one of those last minute surprises that could have added additional headaches but really it was quite fast and easy.”

In addition to the roof and back wall projections, the main lighting consisted of 12 Martin MAC III Spots hung from truss sections in two corners of the ceiling, with 6 Vari*Lite VL 3000 Spots and 6 VL 3500 Spots positioned on the upper ceiling rail. 14 MAC 250 Entour Standard fixtures were positioned on the third floor behind the 14 ornately sculptured windows. Various key lighting and general atmosphere lighting around the Blue Hall was provided by ETC Source Fours with a variety of Pars, floods and floorcans for additional warmth. 23 SGM Riabaltas were mounted on brackets to light the pillars around the perimeter of the room. 14 Wybron Nexera fixtures were used as uplights to frame the massive etched glass doors leading to the Golden Hall on the second floor balcony. All of these pieces integrated beautifully into Sundin’s wysiwyg rendering.

Control came from an ETC Congo programmed by Emma Lan-dare and the design was created in wysiwyg R25 by Sundin. He explained, “I stay in close contact with the wysiwyg Library team and they’re always one step ahead of me. This was the first year I used the Alpha Profile 1500 on this event and when I check to see if something is in the Library, it’s usually been there before the fix-ture was actually shipping. It’s very important to have this. There can sometimes be a last-minute change and if the personality isn’t there, it can cause delays.”

Sundin adds, “wysiwyg always proves to be quite valuable for this event. Production time is short, with fewer than four days for load in, rigging, programming and rehearsals. Any measure that saves time is considered invaluable. I’ve had the drawing in wysiwyg for several years now, so it’s very easy to update – just a few changes to the equipment from year to year and a new design scheme. I can spend the majority of my time on the design. That’s what I’m hired to do. wysiwyg allows me to use my time and talent most effectively.”

Photos courtesy of M & M Production Mgmt.

wysiwyg gets repeat invitation for the 2010 Nobel Prize Banquet - continued

2010 Nobel Banquet - wysiwyg rendering 2010 Nobel Banquet - event photo