Wireless Solution Sweden AB recently helped make a concert at the Pyramids of Giza worthy of a Pharaoh. "Beladi - A Night at the Pyramids" was the first "made for television" concert ever recorded at this historical site and it will air worldwide this winter. The concert featured Quebec singing superstar Chantal Chamandy, accompanied by the Cairo Symphony Orchestra performing for thousands of spectators, with the pyramids and the Great Sphinx providing a spectacular backdrop.

Lighting Designer Matthieu Larivée of Luz Lighting Design and Assistant LD Valy Tremblay of Proluxon designed a colorful array of effects on the massive structures using almost 600 fixtures to achieve the perfect look to accompany this historical event. The landscape provided the biggest challenge, the shortest distance from console to fixture was approximately 1000 meters (.6 miles) and the longest more than 1800 meters (1.1 miles), consisting of rough desert hills and rocky terrain. The only logical solution for DMX control of the massive equipment list was W-DMX by Wireless Solution.

Five W-DMX S-1 transmitters and 10 R-512 receivers handled DMX control of 110 Griven Kolorado 2.4, 60 Zap technologies Biglite 4.5k, 70 Vari-Lite VL3000 spots, 15 Vari-Lite VL3500 spots, 10 Vari-Lite VL3000 wash, 20 Vari-Lite VL500, 80 Martin Mac2000 wash, 110 Color Kinetics CB 12, 4 Robert Juliat Ivanhoe, 4 Robert Juliat Cyrano, 24 Thomas 2-lite par 36 blinders, 24 ETC pars, 15 Strand Nocturne 1k, 4 MDG atmosphere hazers, and 8 MDG 5000 fog generators, all controlled by 4 GrandMA full size consoles. Lighting equipment was supplied by Procon of Belgium.

Tremblay managed all W-DMX specifications and supervised the on-site deployment, in addition to assisting Larivée throughout the production. He also managed all of the DMX data, patch information, and the MA network, as well as GrandMA programming throughout the show with the main operator Hubert Gagnon. Tremblay's Montreal studio, Proluxon, also provided all of the advanced and on-site WYSIWYG services.

Tremblay was thrilled with W-DMX, citing a number of reasons it was so valuable during the project. "I've worked with W-DMX in the past on elaborate shows such as Cirque du Soleil's Delirium and knew it was reliable," he says, "Not only is it impossible to run cable when dealing with set ups of this magnitude, but we were under extremely tight time constraints. We only had 8 days from the time the equipment arrived until the actual concert to get almost 600 fixtures up and running - and they were scattered over the span of an entire square mile of highly protected land. Even if we had that much cable, it would have taken weeks and made an unsightly mess."

Tobias Rylander, lead on-site W-DMX technician, was equally impressed, "It's easy to be skeptical when you see the size of these pyramids, not to mention the other factors like the intense heat and the amount of broadcast equipment, plus thousands of people with cell phones - we even had camels walking around the equipment! But the W-DMX signal was stable the entire time without a single interruption."

W-DMX is the perfect solution for applications where running DMX cable is not practical. W-DMX technology uses Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum to avoid interference. Critics worldwide have hailed the system as the number one product for interference-free wireless DMX technology.

W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden AB is the only system on the market for Wireless DMX that has received awards on both side of the Atlantic Ocean, first at PLASA 2004 and then again at LDI 2005 in Orlando. Most recently, W-DMX "outshone the rest" in an independent Wireless Shootout held by Lighting & Sound International magazine. It has been used in high profile projects all over the world, including the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, 2006 Nobel Prize Banquet, the World Cup Opening Ceremonies and Cirque du Soleil's Delirium show.