I met with Vitor Machado (conceptual design) and Pedro Gonçalves (display and logistical design) of Groupo Luso – competing for the fifth time in Montreal. Everyone still remembers their audacious debut in 2002, with a very creative display featuring a suspended ring, so there is a lot of anticipation for their participation this year. Once again, they are competing against a strong line-up and going head-to-head with both Howard (who beat them in 2008 with a Silver Jupiter) and Sons and Atlas Pyrovision Productions (who beat them to a Silver in 2012 with a Gold Jupiter).
Vitor said ideally he would have liked to compete next year, but an invitation to participate in Montreal cannot be refused. He had had several themes in mind before settling on the current theme based on TV theme music which is divided into several thematic elements and was mixed by local Montreal DJ Hools, who will be performing live in front of the audience during the display.
Technical design is interesting on several levels. Vitor explained they wanted to minimize the amount of overhead in producing the display so they design mounting systems for one-shots that are fast to assemble and have predefined angles, thus saving time. All of the products used are sourced from Groupo Luso – with 80% coming from their Portuguese producers and 20% (mainly for the finale) from their Chinese partners. There are no cakes at all used.
Ramp 2 features seven positions and ramp 3 has more than 30, though organized into two main types. There are positions also on ramp 4 and I saw some steyrFire letter racks in place too. Ramp two also features setups which contain traditional Portuguese rockets – something we haven’t seen in Montreal for a few years.
Of special interest is a large 20m diameter floating circular truss that features 24 positions with more shots than the unforgettable ring used in 2002 (see ring and dome). This will sit in the centre of the lake as close to the audience as the safety distance for the products allow and is the first time they have used such a structure in competition.
The display will be fired using 190 FireOne UltraFire modules and uses around 5500 cues, the highest count of the season so far.
Pedro told me he had used Final Fireworks 3D to take Vitor’s concept and turn it into a show design and the two clearly worked closely together with Vitor commenting that this is show designed specially for the audience (all the products used are manufactured for this display) but is also a pure Luso show.
The weather conditions promise to be perfect for their display.
