Wireless Solution Sweden AB was a proud participant at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games this summer held in Singapore. The event hosted youth athletes 14 to 18 years old from 204 countries competing in 26 events – all hopefuls to compete in the following year’s Summer Olympics.
The opening ceremony was held on August 14 at the Float @ Marina Bay Platform, the world’s largest floating stage located in the heart of Singapore. The Singapore skyline served as a backdrop, which required a display of lighting, lasers and fireworks to truly incorporate with the scenery and show off the venue at its best. The set involved a ring of shipping containers to symbolize Singapore being the biggest harbour in South East Asia. A 5000 sq meter (54,000 sq feet) lake was created in front of the scenography. In the middle stood a 32-metre high (105 ft) lighthouse, which held the cauldron for the Olympic flame. In a very different approach to typical Games ceremonies, the Singapore skyline was used as a background, which was tied in with tremendous lighting effects, skytrackers and fireworks on the buildings, with signal delivered by Wireless Solution W-DMX™. The lighting design for both opening and closing ceremonies was done by Koert Vermeulen, Principal Designer of Belgium-based ACT Lighting Design. PRG supplied technical services, rigging and over 1900 lighting fixtures for the ceremonies. Local supplier Showtec Communications Pte Ltd supplied the W-DMX equipment and signal support for the show. For the skyline, a total of 13 W-DMX BlackBox S-1 transmitters and 13 R-512 receivers distributed signal to buildings surrounding the main site, some up to 1.6 kilometres distance (1 mile). Lighting fixtures included Sycrolite SXB 7/2 and SX 8K. Lighting was controlled with 2 grandMA full size consoles plus 2 grandMA Light for the nightly light shows. The system ran approximately 8 hours a day for 12 days straight without a problem. Vermeulen said, “What can I say? The system worked the whole time. As a lighting designer, it’s really not so much my problem to worry about the DMX signal. But I will say that when I knew we were using the W-DMX brand, I felt much better. It has the best reputation amongst all the wireless DMX brands available. Some I have used are OK only in a theatre setting, but when you get them into extreme conditions and long distances, the reliability disappears. Not so with W-DMX. We had to work within rules of the air traffic and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) so we could only run certain hours of the day but every time we struck, everything worked flawlessly.”
