Songs such as To Mi Je Vsec and Malo Malo, which remained on the charts for more than 150 weeks, have become true anthems in Slovenia. She has sold out major venues, and critics have unanimously praised the strength and style of her work. Without a doubt, Nina Pušlar has built a solid and distinguished career.
However, the singer-songwriter has never strayed far from her roots. So when it came time to celebrate her 20th anniversary in the music industry, she could think of no better place than her small hometown of Ivancna Gorica. Fans filled the local football field where the concert was held, far exceeding the population of this central Slovenian town.
No one in the crowd was disappointed. Nina’s emotionally charged performance was flawless. It was supported by a refined stage design by Greta Godnic and a striking lighting show created by Črt Birsa of Blackout Design, who operated it on his ChamSys MagicQ Stadium Connect.
The lighting show acted as an extension of Nina Pušlar’s music, from intimate ballads to guitar riffs that come very close to rock. My colleague at Blackout, Amadej Superger, usually handles Nina’s shows. I had to adapt his concepts. I took his colors, time code, and cues and adjusted them to fit this specific event, reworking cues and effects among other elements. This allowed me to fully appreciate the flexibility of the MagicQ software. The ChamSys Group Cues feature was a great help on this project. In fact, I cannot imagine programming a show like this using the old ‘individual cues’ method, Birsa explained.
Birsa programmed the 36-universe show at Blackout’s studio using a ChamSys console and ran it onsite with his MagicQ Stadium Connect. “Ninety-five percent of the show was preprogrammed”, he noted. “In modern productions with so many fixtures, there is no other viable option. The show was preprogrammed in WYSIWYG, which integrates seamlessly with ChamSys. Using focus points in WYSIWYG is very useful, as it allows you to transfer pan and tilt information directly to ChamSys, saving a significant amount of time when focusing the fixtures”.
In addition to the Group Cues feature, Birsa found the Quick Editing tool in MagicQ software particularly useful.
I relied heavily on Quick Editing for this show. In fact, all the features of the MagicQ software were essential in achieving a fast and smooth workflow. This becomes even more critical on projects like this one, where time is your biggest enemy, no matter how early you begin pre-production, he commented.
These tools proved fundamental for Birsa, as did his colleagues on the project, who in addition to set designer Godnic included Klemen Krajnc of Blackout Design and production manager Rok Lozar.
Together, they created a spectacular show, with light emanating from circular and triangular truss structures extending in all directions. The result evoked a sense of endless possibilities and wrapped the audience in a warm embrace, much like the music of this beloved star.
