Creative BackStage calls on Chauvet for Canacopia
- Details
The dynamic lightshow supporting the headliner’s performance was designed by Zedd’s LD Steven Hernandez. John Garberson of Creative BackStage spent months working with Forty8 Live! and the Zedd team to bring the event to life.
Garberson had a clear vision in mind when putting together the rig - it had to be bright enough to create bold looks during daylight hours for opening acts, which included Evening Elephants and The Brook & The Buff, and intense enough to stand up to the large bright video wall that was a critical part of the headliner’s show.
“Looking back at the show and evaluating it in terms of our goals for the design, I have to say I was really happy with the way this setup worked for Zedd’s lighting and video team,” commented Garberson. “They did great work syncing the show using timecode. The lighting and video flowed great together to create a single visual experience. The Chauvet fixtures were nice and bright while working alongside the bright LED screens.”
Featured in the rig were eight Maverick Force S Spot, 40 Rogue R2 Beam, 40 Rogue R2 Wash, and 24 STRIKE Array 2 fixtures. These luminaires were drawn from Creative BackStage’s own inventory in addition to being supplied by LIT Lighting.
“We got great lighting support from LIT,” said Garberson. “It was a spectacular effort by our entire team: L1 James Simpson, L2 Casey Jones, Pro Production Services and AZ Event Support. We worked hard setting up over two very hot and wet days, but the end result was a killer.”
Part of the event’s impact came from its powerful and varied audience lighting, much of which emanated from the rig’s STRIKE Array 2 Blinder and Rogue R3 Beam fixtures. The warm white blinders were grouped in pairs, eight of which were flown on downstage truss, and two of which were on the scaffold towers. The high output Rogue R3 Beams were positioned throughout the rig on vertical and horizontal structures as well as on the deck.
By altering the audience lighting between cool and warm white light, the designers reflected different moods. The large centre stage and two side stage video panels were also used for audience lighting at times with breakout patterns that seemed to move out of the screens and into the crowd.
Frequent and dramatic aerial effects added another dimension to the show. The Force S Spot fixtures arranged on the deck in front of the main LED wall figured prominently in creating this look, while the R2 Wash units located throughout the rig filled the air with captivating colour washes, some of which played off against the copious output of confetti cannons.
