During an Australian tour by the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet in June 2013, His Holiness visited Westmead Hospital to uplift patients and staff and share his knowledge at a medical ethics forum joined by more than 300 clinicians. Impact AV was appointed to provide lighting for this high profile event, and was tasked with meeting the competing needs of His Holiness, his adoring public and frenetic media crews.
This was an extraordinary opportunity to play a role in a remarkable event and we were determined to ensure we delivered an exceptional outcome.
Through our research, we knew that a key feature of the Dalai Lama’s public events is his desire to interact intimately with his audience, requiring him to have clear visibility, unimpeded by bright lights. He often wears a small visor to shield his eyes which results in shadowing on his face. To prevent this, while balancing the lighting demands of the onsite media, the trick was to place the lighting strategically and use “colour correction” and “diffusion” gels.
In addition, to ensure the congestion of camera crews and sound engineers did not hamper the sightlines of the audience, we also minimised obstructions by placing a “splitter” for media crews in an optimal position.
The lighting was uniform and user friendly for all involved – not too bright to obstruct the Dalai Lama’s ease of interaction with his audience, but bright enough from a media perspective.
Many in the audience were visibly uplifted by his presence and enjoyed the chance to catch a glimpse of him or meet him face to face. His Holiness expressed his great admiration for the work being done at Westmead Hospital to help patients. What a wonderful opportunity.