Guetta's lighting is designed by Jonathan 'Leggy' Armstrong - well known for his imaginative and stylish shows which have graced several leading dance acts including Basement Jaxx. The touring team works with entirely locally sourced productions wherever they play, and lighting on the road for this leg of the ongoing world tour was overseen and operated by two lighting directors - Alex 'Junior' Cerio of Smash Productions and Sam MacLaren of LightLab - both also LDs in their own right.
Between them and the video visuals produced by Ben Brett's Pilot video control system, operated by Nick Briggs, Guetta gets a dynamic world class show wherever he plays.
This is also a very exciting and refreshing way to work, fusing structured elements with improvisation and live operation involved every night as the show plays out. The Pilot visuals will often set the tone and colours of the track, and both lighting and video work harmoniously contrasting and complimenting.
As Junior puts it, "David DJs all night ... and in essence we all adopt the same modus operandi."
Due to the punishing gig schedule of the Brazilian tour, Junior and Sam split LD'ing duties between them.
Junior had Robe gear on all his shows, starting with an all Robe rig in Guaruja and finishing in Ribeirao Preto.
Equipment for both of these shows was supplied by Apple Produções and included 20 x Robin Pointes, 18 x Robin LEDWash 600s, four Robin MMX WashBeams, 20 x ColorSpot 1200E ATs and 30 x ColorWash 1200E ATs.
In Salvador, LPL provided them with 18 x LEDWash 600s, 18 x ColorSpot 2500E ATs and 26 x ColorWash 2500E ATs.
"I'm always happy to see Robe on the 'contra' rider," Says Junior, who likes the Robin range in particular and further comments, "There's a really nice continuity across the LED fixtures, the Pointe and the MMX units, especially while programming, using the internal macros, etc."
He observes that he is seeing Robe at shows increasingly regularly, and particularly since he started working with David Guetta three years ago. "The pricing structure seems to have allowed companies in all parts of the world to get their hands on decent numbers of Robe fixtures," he reports.
(Jim Evans)
