Point a reasonably powered telescope at the planet Mars and you will see the so
called canals beloved of science fiction writers. Turn that scope around to view
Earth from Mars and a new canal is clearly visible at the heart of Dubai; and this
one is no fiction (see DubaiSat-2 link below). Cutting an elegant swathe through the
city, the new Dubai Canal opened with a spectacular ceremony hosted by His
Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime
Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai. When it came to providing the ultimate in
fanfare, drama, and excitement, creative agency and show producers Prodea
Group, engaged the services of Protec, the Middle East’s largest and best known
specialist event technology provider.

“With such a prestigious opening spectacular nothing can be left to chance,’ said
Paul Flint, Head of Production International Team for Prodea. “The delivery of this
event by Protec did exactly that; their attention to detail was superb.’

With over three kilometres of canal side to cover, the provision of equipment was
huge, as Protec’s project manager for this event Simon Travis explained. “Prodea is
an Italian company, they brought a clear creative vision for the event. The brief
they gave us was to support their vision; to create something spectacular with
lighting, audio and video, with an element of automation for the aerial artists on the
main stage. As such the project engaged almost all the skillsets within Protec. With
such a large waterfront to cover we broke the job down into manageable chunks for
all departments; Pre-function VIP arrival area; Inside of the VIP tent; Main Stage
presentation; The Canal itself; and the Legacy Zone.’

“Lighting was arguably the most stretched department, over three kilometres of
canal bank each side takes a huge commitment of resources. Over 430 Claypaky
lights have been used: Alpha Spot 700 were complimented by large numbers of
Sharpy, Super Sharpy, K10 and K20 B-EYE’s, Scenius, Mythos.

Arguably the most artful lighting was based around the aerialists performance. Here
we used the Clay Paky Scenius, taking full advantage of the shutter function to
minimise spill off the water to spectacular effect. MA Dot2 and two full-size MA2
were used at main locations, controlling an armada of lighting largely, drawn from
the Clay Paky range.’

“Video experienced the most taxing times, this was a big projection show running
content provided by Prodea who also brought their own media servers. There were
two main elements, a dozen Barco HDF 30Ks were deployed for the main stage,
plus another eight mounted to four towers for the water screens along the canal.
The water screens proved problematic in that coastal winds made them unstable,
backward spray rendering the projected images indistinct. Chris Wimbush, our head
of video, had his team resolve the problem by installing gauze grids to stabilise the
water-screens. But this introduces another problem; water screens are a back-
projection surface, but gauze based water screens perform best with front
projection, so the four sets of towers and their respective projectors, had to be re-
positioned to the opposite side.’