Sensation takes CyberHoist to Wonderland

14 july 2009

Sensation, one of Europe’s top mega-dance event brands, celebrated its 10th anniversary this summer by taking the production concept another step further, creating a party atmosphere over two sold-out nights at the Amsterdam Arena.
The event’s famous all-white dress code, originally a tribute by organiser Duncan Sutterheim to his late brother Miles, was reflected in specially commissioned white aerial décor, props and lighting effects.
The aerial pieces were animated, along with video screens and lighting pods, by a 58-motor XLNT CyberHoist motion control system, controlled by a complex four-zoned Ethernet system using XLNT Advanced Technologies DN2 Ethernet/DMX nodes and NS12PF Ethernet / Fiber Optic switches, all provided by Flashlight.
Sensation creative director Sander Vermeulen says, “The whole atmosphere, the lighting and flown pieces, really hits you when you walk in and see 35,000 people all dressed in white!”CyberHoist CH250 250Kg motors opened a central tower of white drapes to reveal a central stage, followed later by unfolding a giant pair of inflatable white butterfly wings. Says Vermeulen: “It was a metaphor for changing the mood of the evening, and it was also the biggest technical challenge.”
12 hanging ‘keys’ pirouetted under CyberHoist control, each internally lit, while lighting circles and a pair of ‘moons’ were also part of the animated aerial action. CyberHoists also raised and lowered eight giant MiTrix LED video panels with two motors per screen, as well as providing the final visual ingredient – four flying ‘butterfly girls’ and another who ‘grew’ like Alice herself in a dress that expanded from human size to a towering 10m high and 6m wide.
The four power and network cable management zones were connected via Ethernet by up to 270 metres of fibre and E-stop to the FOH position, where a total of 14 XLNT Ethernet switches divided the network into the two control systems and XLNT E-stop combiners merged the power distros to three separate E-stop resets for maximum safety and electrical isolation.
The show was triggered by DMX from a Medialon server running timecode, converted by XLNT DMXlink dual channel DMX TriggerBoxes  to triggers for the chain hoist manager.
Sander Vermeulen was creative director and Marcel Elbertse production director for Sensation, with lighting designer Gerard Maijenburg. The motion control team consisted of Flashlight’s CyberHoist project manager Arjen Hofma, acts and keys operator Ramon Rijsdijk, screens and butterflies operator Sander Buys, and CyberHoist engineer Mario Reijm.