On 19 April 2020, over 50 lighting and laser companies shone lights in the sky, united by the hashtag #OurShiningLight, as a salute to those working tirelessly on the frontline. The seeds of the campaigner planted a few weeks earlier when Clearsound Productions’ Steven Haynes and Dan Ridd fired up eight Robe MegaPointes on the roof of its warehouse in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire.
The first installation had such a great reaction that two weeks later Haynes and Ridd deployed two MegaPointes each in five locations – the gardens of Clearsound employees – around Shipston shooting beams all around the town again in support of essential workers.
By Sunday night, the companies count had surged to over 50, stretching from as far north as Inverness (Limelight Event Services) and Stirling (MM Sound & Lighting) in Scotland to as far south as Portsmouth (PK-UK Events); as far west as Plymouth (AVLX) with the easternmost point being covered by Rase Productions in Canterbury. “I was absolutely amazed and thrilled by the take up and sheer enthusiasm with which everyone embraced the idea” stated Haynes.
Back at base in Shipston-on-Stour, Haynes wanted to make an extra special show. He and Ridd asked DJ Benji onboard so they could do a Facebook Live stream with music, building a studio inside their warehouse from which Benji performed to maintain social distancing.
Haynes went spectacular with 12 Robe MegaPointes positioned on top of the Clearsound Productions warehouse, and 32 Robe Spiider LED wash beams on the ground outside, plus 16 LEDBeam 150s and 16 Spikies. “While I was programming, a passer-by happened to be a nurse who’d just finished a long and exhausting shift,” he said. “As I explained the scenario, she was close to tears and said that this sort of action made her week! It was a really emotional moment and it’s feedback like this that makes it all so worthwhile.”
Others using Robe products when connecting to the action with a local display of their own included Halo Lighting in north London, who utilised 12 MegaPointes and 16 Pointes, some with NHS gobos, and Zig Zag Lighting in Leeds utilised 12 MegaPointes set up in the loading dock of its warehouse.
In Scotland, MM Sound & Light ensured the skies above Stirling were lit up clear and bright with eight Pointes, four DL4S Profiles, eight Spiiders and twelve LEDWash 300+s while JL Lighting in Oxfordshire put 26 MegaPointes to work. Limelight Event Services in Inverness illuminated Inverness Castle with 19 MegaPointes and eight Spiiders.
Dragonfly Lighting in Banbury – almost neighbours to Clearsound – energised 37 Robes including 12 MegaPointes, three Pointes, eight Spikies, eight CycFX 8s and six LEDWash 300s. While the Extreme Production Group’s display in Hertfordshire comprised eight ESPRITES, 20 Pointes and six Spiiders and on the south coast, PK-UK events unleashed 24 of their Spiiders.
The list continued with Buckinghamshire-based GLX Productions including four Pointes and eight LEDBeam150s, 4Wall UK caught utilised eight MegaPointes as part of its show with a Falcon 7K large beam searchlight fixture as the focal point.