Claypaky Xtylos debut in Pepsi Halftime Show
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Lighting designer Bob Barnhart of 22 Degrees, who has 21 Super Bowl halftime shows to his credit, selected 50 Xtylos for the event after seeing the fixtures at LDI 2019. “I was impressed with the beam quality, which was so pure and consistent in intensity from the outside edge to the centre,” he says. “Xtylos was incredibly crisp and clear; its really hard edge intrigued me and stayed on my mind as the halftime show took shape.”
“It takes a special breed of person to use a new product on a project like this. Bob and his team have the incredible talent to make the fixtures look amazing and also the intestinal fortitude to use a completely new technology on live television,” says George Masek, Claypaky’s strategic marketing manager for entertainment lighting solutions in the US and Canada.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have fixtures debut on three Super Bowl halftime shows with 22 Degrees, and I can’t think of a bigger event on the world stage each year. The halftime show was the highest-profile usage of Xtylos to date and the first for a worldwide audience. Bob embraced our new Xtylos fixtures to create something exceptional.”
The Hard Rock Stadium features a permanent truss position on the field at the upstage wall, which is “a good position for instruments to create a good background,” notes Barnhart. “I kept coming back to considering the good tight, clean beams of Xtylos. There always had to be something in the background that was consistent - whether it was a straight shot or a cross-shot I needed to create a width and consistency in the background.”
Barnhart opted to mount 50 Xtylos on the ground-supported truss set against the front row of the audience to form a background for the stage. The fixtures were utilised in conjunction with PRG (Production Resource Group), which was the lighting vendor for the production.
“I wanted to run Xtylos as tight and crisp as possible to make for the best graphics in a full range of colours, including pastels,” he says. “Claypaky deserves a lot of credit for harnessing this very unique laser engine in a lighting instrument for the entertainment sector. It was fun playing with something so new!”
David Grill, Peter Radice, Patrick Brazil and Jason Rudolph all served as lighting directors for the Pepsi Halftime Show.
(Jim Evans)
