Bewley has truss-mounted eighty-four MagicBlade-R fixtures behind the band in a curved wall which splits horizontally to adapt his design to fit any size of venue.
"My initial concept was to create a kind of 'fence' housing an LED framework in emulation of a brain and the neuropaths within it to emphasise the idea of The Mindsweep," says Bewley. "The LED strip needed more to bring it to life, so I supplemented it with MagicBlades which have really made it zing!"
Ayrton's MagicBlade-R aligns seven individually controllable 15W RGBW LED emitters, each with a tight 4.5° beam, and provides continuous double rotation on the pan and tilt axes.
"For the first part of the year we used around 44 MagicBlades on a 3.8m high rolling framework which fitted the UK Academy venues," says Bewley. "It's like a floor package on steroids!
"We then added another 40 units on a flown truss to double the 'fence' to a height of 8m for this summer's larger UK and European festivals like Download, Glastonbury and Rock Werchter."
Bewley chose to use the pan/tilt and continuous pan/tilt features of MagicBlade-R fixtures copiously in his design, supplemented by a variety of static looks: "I opted to use the MagicBlades in many visually interesting positions and patterns, and employed the dimmer chase to emulate the music. The combination of MagicBlade's movement, colour, on-board macros and desk effects mean I can create something truly different, weird and unique that people haven't seen before. That is exactly what I want to discover in a new fixture."
Twenty-four more MagicBlade-R units line the stage's downstage edge to form a wall of light 'like one big MagicBlade' between the band and the audience.
Bewley programmed the show using different layers and groups of MagicBlade-R fixtures. "We now have two or three different shows programmed to suit different sized venues. We use MagicBlade's RDM function to automatically address everything during set up which is fantastically time-saving time, and have a show which is fast and easy to adapt wherever we go."
The MagicBlade-R fixtures are proving well up to the demands placed on them by the 40+ date tour. "These units are bulletproof!" says Bewley. "They are great fixtures - really solid and reliable."
Ayrton's MagicBlade-R fixtures were supplied by for the UK and European tour by Neg Earth.
(Jim Evans)
