State of Origin returned to ANZ Stadium and with one win already behind NSW, there was only one colour – BLUE!

Once again Tom Wright of Additive was asked by The Spark to create a stunning lighting solution for the pre match entertainment.

Whilst the previous Melbourne event was all bells and whistles with lasers and water screens, the idea in Sydney was to go old school with a rock concert vibe.

With three rock bands on the bill - Kingswood, The Rubens and Jet – the decision was made to place the stage at one end of the stadium with a ramp leading directly under the bleachers. The first two acts performed towards the crowd with the stadium lighting on full. Headliners Jet switched the performance around so that the crowd became a living backdrop.

This meant that Tom had two operation locations with one MA Lighting International grandMA located in a tunnel at the bottom of the ramp for the first two bands which was mainly additional white light. He then had to hot foot it up into the bleachers where his other grandMA awaited to light Jet with the full whizz bang light show.

On stage a ring of 26 x Martin Professional MAC Aura XBs were placed around the perimeter with LED Pars uplighting the band. Either side of the stage were four MAC Viper Performances for side lighting, using their shutters to lift the light off the floor. The stage floor house a load of Elation Professional DTW IP rated LED blinders, a fixture Tom particularly favours.

“I love them because they feel like normal blinders but you can strobe with a speed and intensity only achievable with LED, they’re quick, responsive but still give you the great tungsten glow you crave” he added. “I used GLP - German Light Products JCD1 strobes for the first time as a bit of eye candy, and they were certainly useful when the stage flipped over as you just have to flip the tilt on them. I also added my favourite strobe upstage, the Martin Atomic LED, as it’s still the cleanest and brightest.”

Behind the stage, the back truss had eight Claypaky Mythos for some stunning beams shooting through and above Jet. Also on the back truss were ShowPro EX36 LED floods which were used to actually light the stand behind in blue as this was the NSW supporter’s area.

“I find them phenomenal for a big blast of light,” commented Tom. “I can hit the stadium with a big wash of blue and the supporters will be wearing blue wigs, with LEDs built into them, which adds to the effect.”

In this supporter’s area Tom had also placed ROBE lighting Spiiders and more Claypaky Mythos as well as four ProLight Panoramas which Chameleon has recently purchased.

“They’ve been great!” said Tom. “Not only are they IP-rated they’ve easily competed with the rest of the rig in terms of brightness and produce a phenomenally clean and sharp pencil beam. I’m hoping to have a lot more of them for the next State of Origin!”

Up in the air there were two trusses either side, each holding MAC Viper AirFX mainly for an effect when goals were scored, but also some front light for when Jet performed. In fact Tom sometimes zoomed them down to act as a follow spot.

Of course it would be State of Origin without flames, pyros, and CO2 Jets accompanying the full on light show.