Lighting designer Jay Chiari and lighting tech Brandon Thomas of Audio Visual Services (Macon, GA) used 12 Q-Wash 560Z-LED moving yoke washes, six COLORado Batten 72 Tour linear washes and 18 Legend 230SR Beam moving beams in a rig that drenched the stage in intense colours. "We wanted an intense light show to match the power of Fantasia's performance," said Thomas. "The concert covered a range of moods so we relied on a lot of dimming and colour changing to reflect these changes."
The COLORado Batten 72 Tours, which were positioned downstage and used to uplight Fantasia and other performers, were key to setting different emotional tones for the concert. Powered by 72 calibrated red, green, blue, white and amber LEDs and featuring five dimming curves, the batten-style wash produces a vast range of colours.
"We were impressed with the colours produced by the COLORados," said Thomas. "The amber LEDs really help enhance the quality of the colour mixing. The fixtures were great for setting moods on stage."
For added impact and to engage the crowd with audience lighting, the Legend 230 SR Beams were positioned throughout the rig. "We had them upstage, downstage and mid stage," said Thomas. "We had them on truss and on the floor. Their sharp beams were essential to creating the dynamic look that the music demanded. There were six big name beam effects on our rig along with the Legend 230s, and if you were at the show - even if you were in the lighting profession - I don't think you could have told the difference between the two sets of fixtures."
Rounding out the rig were the Q-Wash 560Z-LED moving yokes, which were positioned upstage and down stage. Producing a uniform wash emitting an impressive 13,100 lux at 5m, these fixtures were more than able to hold their own next to the rest of this intense output rig.
"We used this rig at three venues: the Columbus (GA) Civic Centre, the Johnny Mercer Theatre in Savannah, and the Florence South Carolina Civic Centre," said Thomas. "The rig was easy to set up and the lights were easy to program, which is always nice when you're touring. Wherever we went people were impressed with the lightshow; the great performance on stage deserved nothing less."
(Jim Evans)
*Pic Fantasia
