ChamSys MagicQ controls Empire of the Sun
- Details
This transcendental quality was on full display last month, when Empire of the Sun appeared on the Coachella Festival’s Sahara Stage. Dressed in flowing, futuristic silky black outfits and backed by robot dancers, the duo performed on a stage adorned with glowing pyramids and a six-pronged silver statue cradling a primordial white orb. Illuminating the fantastical scene with brilliant white light and vivid colors was a lightshow that Dave Taylor programmed and controlled with the ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium.
Taylor used over 1,200 different light fixtures and 3,000 channels of LED tape in his 86-active-universe show. In addition to his ChamSys console, he relied on a SnakeSys R8 eight-universe Ethernet to DMX converter, a SnakeSys R4 multi-purpose network distribution node, and two SnakeSys B4 four-universe DMX to Ethernet converters to run his massive rig.
“There was no shortage of lighting on this one,” said Taylor. “Empire of the Sun is always pushing the boundaries, not just musically but visually. They’re constantly searching for images that move people in new ways. Our show continues to build and, as a designer, I’m constantly evolving with it. This is the first time I used the MagicQ MQ500 Stadium, since it’s new. This is really the next step in controllers for me, kind of a natural progression. It enabled me to create the ideal workspace for myself to program and control the show.”
The speed and flexibility of the ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium made it easier for Taylor to preprogramme the intricately detailed show. “Doing your homework is 90 percent of the gig when you have a show like this,” he said. “The ChamSys platform makes this task simpler with the excellent speed that it has when patching and manipulating fixtures. When you pair the console’s internal morphing and cloning capabilities with features like multi-patch, quick offset options and powerful pixel mappers, you find it quick and easy to build a solid foundation that can be adapted to different venues.”
Taylor concluded: “This is a very efficient console. I’m extremely impressed with the advanced power of the onboard processing. We were able to output a large number of universes directly from the console without the need for any external processing nodes.”
(Jim Evans)
