Lighthouse screens for Sanremo festival, Hong Kong Sevens

Now in its 55th year, the Festival di Sanremo is Italy’s own, and longer running, version of the Eurovision song contest. As usual, it took place in the Teatro Ariston di Sanremo from March 1 to March 5. This year saw a whole new format to the show, which required lavish staging. This took on a fresh aspect when AV rental company Eurovideo developed a new concept in set design by placing Lighthouse LED modules in the risers of stairs at the rear of the stage.

Eurovideo’s Mario Prataviera explains: “The stairs were an integral part of the stage and we were looking at unique ways of making them both visually attractive and a useful part of the video concept. We came up with the idea of putting video into them, so we custom-built aluminum boxes to contain modules of Lighthouse 10mm LED screen, along with all the necessary cabling and support mechanisms.”

Each of these modules measured 192x16 cm and was movable, so the stairs could be retracted to form one large screen as well as being separate elements.

Additionally, Eurovideo flew four sets of 14x2 modules of Lighthouse 10 mm screen at the side of the stage, as well as a central screen which comprised two sets of 16x2 modules (right and left sides) and two sets of 13x2 modules at the bottom.

“Companies like Eurovideo are constantly pushing the boundaries of set design,” adds Lighthouse’s Southern Europe sales director, Roberto Segato. “And it’s great to see our screens being used in such an innovative way.”

Hong Kong Sevens The Rugby Sevens, one of Hong Kong’s major sporting events, arrived at Hong Kong Stadium in late March. Held every four years, it is three days of pure brute strength, speed and skill from some of the world’s burliest men. Every minute of the action was relayed to fans in the Sevens Village, opposite the stadium, on a Lighthouse Technologies LED video screen, whose size and performance easily matched that of the players. This year Fiji’s stunning performance snatched the coveted cup from the hands of New Zealand.

Lighthouse and Join Merit Media Holdings Ltd provided a seven by seven panel R16i/o LED screen measuring 7.11m x 5.33m providing great picture quality and sufficient brightness to give the fans perfect viewing even in direct sunlight. Lighthouse also supplied all the necessary rigging equipment and staff.

The Lighthouse screen recently installed at Hong Kong’s Chungking Express shopping centre also showed images from the Sevens’ matches thereby also allowing shoppers a taste of the action.

“The Rugby Sevens has become a Hong Kong institution,” comments Lighthouse’s managing director Mark Chan. “Our screens are an excellent choice for sporting events because of their great colour rendition – which is a must for team sponsors wanting to make sure that their corporate image is correctly relayed – and brightness capability to cope with the inevitably high ambient light levels one gets with outdoor events. We’re very proud to be able to be part of this prestigious occasion.”