Claypaky Sharpy X Frame hybrid luminaires illuminated the inaugural 2024 World Taekwondo Virtual Championships in Singapore where more than 120 athletes from 23 countries participated in the first-ever event of its kind. The competition took place at the Singapore Sports Hub OCBC Arena 1, November 16-17. The event marked the return of the sport to Singapore after the city successfully hosted the first Olympic Esports Week in June 2023, where Virtual Taekwondo made its debut. Virtual Taekwondo uses a motion tracking system and virtual reality headset in matches of non-contact sparring.
Lighting Designer Michael Chan of Singapore-based Lighting Insomnia selected 36 Sharpy X Frames for the landmark event. Chan has worked on a wide range of arts, entertainment and installation projects. His experience ranges from consulting on installations and major events to designing and programming for 3D visualization, musicals, concerts, special events, galleries, exhibitions and architainment.
For the World Virtual Taekwondo Championships, it was his goal “to create an exciting opening ceremony, while providing sufficient face light for the field of play. The idea was to maximize the number of fixtures we had and to make the lighting rig look bigger and more imposing than it actually was. To achieve that, we had six slanted trusses at varying heights and fitted them with 36 Sharpy X Frames to occupy more of the vertical spaces above the field of play and in the FOH.”
Chan chose the fixtures because they are “bright, punchy and have great versatility and responsiveness – a real Swiss army knife type of fixture. The fact that they are so punchy in beam mode and yet can be instantly converted to a large profile fixture with framing was key to their selection.”
He was very pleased with the Sharpy X Frames, which he says “performed fantastically well. They did everything I asked of them, and the support from Claypaky was great.”
Rental house MediaPix Pte Ltd supplied the fixtures. Haikal served as the Lighting Operator for the event. Acoustic and Lighting Singapore is Claypaky’s distributor in the region.