© 2011 The official bi-monthly publication for wysiwyg Members 9 ISSUE 34 /Jan 2011 wysiwyg gets repeat invitation for the 2010 Nobel Prize Banquet On 10 Dec 2010, wysiwyg once again rubbed elbows with royalty at one of the highest profile events in the world – The Nobel Prize Banquet. Held since 1934 in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall annually on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, the banquet follows the esteemed Nobel Prize Awards. The event is attended by the King and Queen of Sweden, and the other members of the Royal Family, plus approximately 1300 guests, including Nobel Laureates, politicians, dignitaries and other VIPs, as well as seen by the viewing audience of a High Definition television broadcast by Swedish Television (SVT). Lighting Designer Per Sundin of Stockholm-based Sundin Design- ers AB has been in charge of lighting the event for the past 14 years since the time when he worked for SVT. Sundin and Pro- duction Manager Ola Melzig of M & M Production Management, also out of Stockholm, have worked together on the event several times, so they know the building and set up routine well. For the Nobel Banquet, the layout of the tables, chairs and place settings is exactly the same every year, so in 2008, for the first time, Melzig decided to create the banquet setup in Vivien, down to the famous red brick walls and even plates and glasses. Be- cause Sundin does his lighting design in wysiwyg, the files worked together seamlessly and made the virtual drawings incredibly re- alistic. Since then, Sundin has continued to use the original Vivien file and incorporates it into his annual wysiwyg design perfectly. He has no hesitation using the software combination again. After all, why reinvent the wheel? “wysiwyg and Vivien are incredibly useful concept tools,” said Melzig, “This banquet has been taking place in this same location for 75 years and the drawings have always been on paper. Now that we have a 3D model, everyone in the planning process can visualize their ideas accurately in a much faster and efficient way. The only things that change each year are the flowers, entertain- ment and lighting, so imagine how helpful it is to share this file.” The positioning of the lighting set up itself does not change drasti- cally from year to year, due to the limited number of places where fixtures can be hung. The 85-year-old Stockholm City Hall was not built with modern technology in mind (nor any rigging points), plus the Nobel Foundation has very strict regulations about un- necessary cabling and other elements that can make the Hall less aesthetically pleasing. But there are occasional changes to the equipment list, which makes having an updated wysiwyg Library so important. This was the first year for the Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500 fix- tures to make an appearance, and Sundin used them on an unex- pected surface – the massive ceiling of the Blue Hall. In the past, video content has been projected onto the 40m×32m (131’×105’) space, but this year, the Alpha Profile 1500 fixtures took the place of the projectors, sending gobo projections overhead from the convenient location of the 2nd floor balcony. The original idea came by way of architect Ragnar Östberg while the building was being constructed between 1911 and 1923. He liked the way the water outside the building reflected up onto the ceiling through the high windows and decided to leave it plain white to capture that look. During the banquet, however, it is too dark outside to reflect anything, so Sundin’s design employs other means to retain that feel while also taking advantage of the largest