This aggressive music calls for a hard-hitting lightshow, which is precisely what designers Ethan Kairer, Jim Feeney and Corey Mattonen delivered on the artist's recent tour with help from a collection of Nexus 4x4 LED panels and MVP Ta8 Curve video panels from Chauvet Professional.
The designers used 10 of the Nexus panels and a 12' x 12' wall of MVP Ta 8 panels, all supplied by Zeo Brothers, on the sold-out Brillz Twonk Di Nation Tour to create a visual impression that was as punchy as the artist's 808 kick drums and sub base lines.
"Intensity, brightness and colour were all out in front on this tour," said Mattonen. "We wanted a rig that matched the energy level of the music, so the Chauvet Nexus and video panels fit right our plans. Ethan Kairer, our designer, and Jim Feeney, who did the layout of our rig, were instrumental in creating the looks we got mixing the video wall and Nexus panels. Brillz also had a fundamental part in designing many of the looks that we used throughout the show. He was very involved in a lot of the look design during programming."
Initially, the design team planned on building the video wall as a square box. Later they decided to add more impact to the show by replacing the top two corners of the wall with Nexus panels. The pixel mapped LED panels often matched the images shown on the video wall. Images were fed to the panels from Resolume software and controlled via a grandMA2 console.
"We would run the video content provided by support acts during their sets with house lighting rig," said Mattonen. "For Brillz, we used exclusively his own content. The panels showed the images crisp and clear. They looked great coordinated with the lights and Nexus."
(Jim Evans)
