Feuerwerk der Turnkunst

For 31 years now, gymnasts and acrobats have inspired spectators in Germany.

The show has been getting bigger, better and more spectacular year after year – in 2018 the show “AURA” is the most successful tour of all time. At the beginning there were only a few shows each year and this year there are 32 shows in 20 cities. The halls have also grown larger over the years and the technology has increased enormously in scope and effort. After all, the 50-member ensemble wants only one thing: to be staged perfectly in order to enchant the more than 220,000 spectators.

For four years now, PRG has been responsible for event technology and supplies rigging, video, lighting and audio technology. As Account Manager, Tom Kaczmarek is on the tour for PRG and is at the customer's side with advice and assistance. In total, PRG is on site with 14 people. Before each show, the team goes into the hall early in the morning to set up the elaborate stage set together with the equipment team. Afterwards, rehearsals take place in order to adjust the technique and also to check the stability of all the equipment, so that the artists feel comfortable and can cope with the respective situations, which vary from venue to venue.

At the Tour Aura, the lighting technology was adapted to the very special video technology. The lighting included 50 Icon Beams, 38 Martin MAC Viper Wash DX, 12 SGM P1, 12 SGM P5, 18 SGM Q7, 20 Clay Paky Scenius and four PRG GroundControl systems. Video technology was the main focus of this year's tour. A total of six Panasonic (PT-DZ21K2) projectors were installed. Of these, two were used for the floor projection to animate and accompany the dancers and acrobats in colour, and four for the sails on which a rear projection takes place. The system includes four infrared cameras that detect the movements of the artists. The image is then converted via computer and sent to the projectors, resulting in color animations of the movements in real time. Already a year in advance, the first test set-ups were carried out in order to test and subsequently optimize this year's technical projects.

Lighting designer Marc Brunkhardt is delighted with the successful implementation of the show: “I think we have managed to create two and a half hours of varied pictures. So far I have received almost only positive feedback. It is very exciting for the artists as a whole and they are all super happy and think everything that happens here is very good." The show has improved steadily over the years and has reached a high level above all technically. Wolfram Wehr-Reinhold, Production Manager of Fireworks of Gymnastics, explains how important it is to offer the audience something new every year: “We try to offer people something new, both artistically and technically, and always try to offer people something surprising so that the audience may not always immediately understand how it actually works. In the end, this makes the appeal that people are surprised and enthusiastic about what they have seen." The AURA tour was a complete success and makes Wolfram Wehr-Reinhold more than satisfied. For him, this is, along with renowned artists and acrobats, the show’s recipe for success: “I think that’s the secret of success. We keep coming up with something new and I think the audience can be sure that in 2019 we’ll be back on the “Connected” tour with new surprises, new technical subtleties and brilliant artists from all over the world. “