The 2025 ARIA Awards were held at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, with Paul Collison and his eleven DESIGN team once again designing an electrifying lighting design with gear and crew supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems.
The ARIA Awards have always been a video-heavy show, and this year was no different, with more LED panels added to the presentation stage and the outer IMAG screens converting to LED.
“The Camera Right Stage had been all video screen, but this year, we decided to break up the video screen,” PC commented. “We found that there were some acts that didn’t have the resources to take full advantage of all the immersive video surfaces, so for 2025, we decided to get some light in more strategic positions to provide more energy for the acts that couldn’t produce immersive content.”
eleven DESIGN has just purchased two brand-new PIXERA two GEN2 RS servers to add to their fleet of media servers and control equipment.
PIXERA two GEN2 RS is a compact 2U media server system that can play back uncompressed 4K at 60fps. PIXERA two GEN2 RS offers specified and fixed rental staging options and includes a redundant power supply.
“Previously, we’ve used custom hardware, which has been great, but we’ve been finding that a lot of the touring acts really want the proprietary hardware,” said PC. “This was their first big outing, and they performed perfectly, driving 47 layers of presentation content.”
PC remarked that PIXERA, as a company, is easy to communicate with and develops tools that help users every day. He particularly favours the clean, efficient user interface, saying that many of the other media servers have been developed over time and seem to have parts of their software bolted on.
“PIXERA really feels like a homogenous piece of software that was designed first and then built, as opposed to the other options on the market,” he stated. “At the ARIAS, we ran a multi-user setup, so we had two people driving two PIXERA at any one point in time. We could have somebody programming presentation content while we were doing band rehearsals, or vice versa.”
PC adds that the video content side of the production is a monstrous amount of work. The presentation graphics are heavily layered. Content is sent directly to broadcast, six different presentation screens plus the performance stage – so there is a lot of content going in multiple directions, which is why it takes two people, full-time, to drive it.
Between the video screens on Camera Right Stage were ladders of Martin MAC Ones, 16 in total, with a further 21 in the truss above. Also lighting this area were 24 x ShowPRO Quad Zoom Par, 8 x ShowPRO Collider Strobes, and 4 x Martin MAC Aura.
Camera Left Stage featured 51 x Ayrton Diablo, 20 x Ayrton Argo 6 FX, 27 x Claypaky Stormy and 4 x Martin MAC Aura.
“There is not a lot of depth on the stages, so you have to be very careful with the fixtures you choose,” explained PC. “You’re going to get up close and intimate with them on camera. The Argo 6 FX’s LiquidEffect offered some new and different textures, which were nice to explore. They’re a chunky wash light, too, and I was impressed by them.”
The Room lighting used 160 x Martin MAC101 fixtures to light the tables, with PC remarking that they are still the most efficient table light available. To add some twinkle right out the back of the audience, PC chose 75 x ShowPRO Trussmates.
“They’re an old, has-been light, but at the end of the day, being able to stick so many of them out there in what would otherwise be a big black hole in an efficient manner, you can’t beat it,” he commented. “The Stormys have also been around forever; they go flash when you hit a button. We really needed just a bit of sparkle, and that’s what they gave us.”
Key lights were 10 x Martin MAC Ultra, 2 with Macula cameras mounted to run as follow spots, and 6 x Martin MAC Encore CLD.
“I’m a big fan of the Macula system,” said PC. “It allows us to choose what type of light we want to act as a follow spot, which is great for us in broadcast.”
Atmosphere was 4 x Look Solutions Viper Foggers with fans. Control was 4 x MA Lighting grandMA3 light, 1 x grandMA3 compact XT and a grandMA3 PU XL.
Lighting Designer – Paul Collison
Lighting Directors – Lucia Haddad, Stuart Anderson
Media Servers – Brad Salt, Luke Boyd
Lighting Supply – Chameleon Touring Systems
Screen Supply – Scene Change
Event Production – Second Sunday
Television Broadcast – Roving Enterprises
Photos: Girl in the Bandana
